Pokemon Chronicles - Fate of Two Worlds
by Eric566
Summary: It has been almost a full year since Team Star saved the world, and it seems peace has somewhat returned to the world. However, after a mission goes wrong, the team is sent to a completely new world, where they will meet new allies, face dangers they've never encountered and try to save both worlds from destruction. Rated T for blood, swears and suggestive themes.
1. Prologue - The Travelers

**Before we begin, I want to say a few things: This is a crossover between Rayduran's fic and mine, so I have his permission to upload this fic, just as he has my permission to upload his (we both have the same fic, but his will be in Spanish and mine will be in English.)**

 **If you're a new reader that has stumbled across this fic, know that this is the second part of the series, and unless you want to be heavily spoiled, you should go read the first part first before heading any further. And whilst we are on that subject, every so often whilst reading you will see bald words between brackets. Those are titles of songs which I suggest you paste on youtube and listen whilst reading. It is optional, but I believe it adds a nice touch to the story.**

 **Anyways, without any further ado… Let's begin!**

 **Prologue**

 **The Travelers**

 **(The Gates of Hell - Bayonetta)**

The moment he came in through that door... I knew he was looking for me. I mean... what else would a cloaked guy be doing in this shithole? The Hole of the Damned was known far and wide for it's bad reputation... Criminals of all ages, simply robbers or mass killers all came together in this forgotten corner of the world. Whether you came along or brought some "friends", there was always a place for you in this place if you had a bounty on your head.

The worse of the worse: Mercenaries, Psychopaths, Killers... all types of pokemon with the which I blended in perfectly. One could say I felt in my element, because we all had one thing in common: The fact that our lives had gone to shit. We weren't there for pleasure. We were there because we didn't have anywhere else to go. The location of this place was passed from soulless criminal to another soulless criminal, and you could say I had gotten the name of this place by mere chance... But after that night I'd believe otherwise. He didn't fit in with us. He wore a cloak black as night as he came in through that door, ignoring the look of hatred he was getting from the bouncer at the entrance. He stood still and kept walking, looking majestic, staring down at everyone in that cafe... If I hadn't known that there was something off about him I'd probably been the first one to get up and break his face... But he had this... feeling... I've yet to put a finger on it.

I couldn't see anything under that cloak either. And even now I don't think it was because of the dim light in that Arceus forsaken café... I just kept my head down and returned to my drink, drowning myself in alcohol to keep myself sane. I couldn't get my eye off of him however... even if I wasn't looking at him directly I kept him in my view range... Never letting him out. He walked over to the bar and looked at the bartender. A real piece of shit Muk, and I'm saying this literally... What are those things made of anyways? Trash? Garbage? Shit? Couldn't care less, because he asked the fucker something, and I saw a slimy appendage, which I guess could be misinterpreted by a hand or whatever raise up and point in my direction. Fucking great.

Just as he approached me, the waitress passed by. A Lopunny with all sorts of strange metal artifacts pierced through her ears, swaying her hips back and forth… "Here's your drink, sir." She said in such a sensual way that I had to resist the urge to snap up and tear her apart. Disgusting, that's what she was. Her act was forced, probably by the abusive bartender of that hell hole, but.. to be honest I couldn't care less. I took my drink and she left as she came, moving her hips back and forth… Just in front of my table, a Machamp reached out for her and slapped her rear, making the Lopunny "squeal in delight" like a good whore would, and the two began their exchange of dirty innuendos and chuckling. Sometimes, I wished that the world was cleared of these creatures. Simply and utterly disgusting. I expected he would just take her right then and there in the middle of that decaying shack in the middle of nowhere whilst everyone watched, or hell, maybe someone would join into the "fun" after a while…

I took my head away from those thoughts, resisting the urge to get up immediately and leave forever after that shameful display of "love". And it was too late anyways, since the newcomer was now right next to my table. He sat down on the couch at the other side, not even asking. Great. "What do you want?" I asked, the guy glaring at me from under his hood with those weird as all hell eyes.

"I will have you know that my current physical appearance isn't the reason why I hide under a cloak… it is more so hide my identity." The bastard in front of me said. I rose an eyebrow and rolled my eyes, looking at my drink. It was some kind of black ooze that made your mind go numb, and your throat started to burn. It wasn't completely unpleasant, and it kept me from thinking about anything else, so it served it's purpose well. It could be made out of that Muk's body for all I cared. I would still drink it if it were to be the case. "Coincidentally, that drink isn't produced by the Muk. It's a mixture of alcohol, water and waste from the Muk's body. The later is what gives it that black tar like texture as well as it's burning effect." The guy in front of me said.

I glanced at him, then took a long sip, drinking half of it in one go. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I slammed it on the table, fighting it's effects and keeping my eyes on the thing in front of me. I called it a thing because I didn't know if it was a pokemon or what the hell it was, there was no way to tell because of that cloak. The guy had the guts to stare back, and we both kept our eyes on one another for a while, before I finally asked him the question. "What the hell do you want?" I asked, impatient. I wanted him to leave. Right then and there.

"I have come here in search for you. It has been months since I set out to find you, and I only managed to do so by leading you here." He said. Great, so this guy knew who I was and he had taken me there. Fantastic. "As you have probably guessed, I need something from you." He said.

I chuckled. "Don't we all? We can't solve our own problems, so we just call the sucker next door to solve them, eh?" I slammed a hand on the table. "Look, I don't have time to waste with you, so you either leave on your own… or stuffed in a box. Your call." I threatened him, but I knew very well that my threats meant nothing to him. After all, he had come all of that way to find me, why would he back away after such a mundane phrase?

He looked around, and all of a sudden his head twitched, and I knew, even if he didn't show it, that he was smiling. The nerve. "To me… it seems like you're basically wasting your time inside of this hole. I mean… have you looked at our surroundings? Honestly, I think that you have more than enough time to spare to have a chat." The tone of his voice changed altogether, but I didn't let that disturb me in the slightest.

"I have more than enough time to spare… but I don't have time to waste on you. Get lost, will you?" I asked him as politely as I could. Moans filled the air. Great, those two had ended up getting it on right behind that guy's back. If it wasn't for him, I would be getting a first row seat to the action. Not that I wanted, of course.

He noticed the look of annoyance on my face. "Are they bothering you?" He suddenly asked. I was about to nod, when all of a sudden two transparent purple blades appeared and shot behind him. Screams were heard, and two bodies fell to the floor, dead. The Machamp and the Lopunny, their throats sliced. The blades disappeared the same way they came, and the bastard sat back into his spot again. Everyone turned to face this cloaked guy, alarm and hatred in their eyes. I even slightly leaned to the side, ready to start fighting…. But he just sat there. "Fixed… Now, where were we? Ah yes… Eric and Elly."

He just said their names right then and there. He just dropped them as if we were in a normal conversation. But no, it wasn't a normal conversation. Those names were forbidden in that place, yet there he was, saying them out loud. Everything stopped. The "commotion" for the dead bodies stopped as quickly as it came, everyone looking at thing in front of me, which was dragging attention to myself too… And I just couldn't help it.

I laughed.

I started laughing as hard as I could. This guy… How could my day get any better?

 **(Stop the music)**

* * *

 **Somewhere in Sinnoh…**

"Time to wake up, sleepyhead!" A voice shook the Riolu out of his sleep. He opened his eyes with crimson red irises and blinked a few times, groaning as he didn't find anyone standing there. As he turned to face away, he found himself looking straight into a pair of sky blue eyes. But he wasn't surprised at all, since he knew she would be there with him. He turned to face down, crossing his arms on the hay bed and resting his head there, closing his eyes.

"Just five more minutes Elly…" He muttered with a smile on his face, waiting for her reaction.

"Whaaaaaat?" She asked. "You of all pokemon wants to sleep for five more minutes? You, who forces everyone to impromptu training and running every single morning to keep us fit?" She questioned in an extremely ironic tone of voice.

"Hmmmmhmmm… You heard me honey, now please, go wake up Serge or Nox, they probably need your help more than I do." He told her, shifting around to get comfortable once more.

Elly scoffed in fake indignation. "Oh, unbelievable! You're such a bad example to the rest of your team mates! I'll have to fix this… somehow…" Her voice disappeared as silence befell the bedroom. The Riolu sighed and opened his eyes, twisting around again and laying on his back with his arms crossed behind his back, looking up at the ceiling of the still dark room, all thanks to the new blinds they had gotten which blocked most of the sunlight, since they were made out of wood… And all of sudden they popped open by themselves, light shining directly into Eric's eyes.

"Gah!" He shielded his eyes from the intrusive beam of light whilst a laugh echoed behind him. "Damn it Elly, I really wanted to sleep for five more minutes!" He exclaimed, blinking a few times and turning around on the bed to look at the door. There he was an Eevee smiling at him and chuckling.

"Now you know how it feels to be woken up by you!" She laughed in victory as she jumped away, closing the door behind her. Eric was about to say something in response, but instead groaning, rolled his eyes and laid back down, facing away from the sun. He kept still for a few moments…

"Nope, not falling asleep... " He sighed. "Damn it Elly…" He muttered as he sat on the bed and then got up with his paws. He looked at the window, seeing that the sun had just risen and was shining directly into the room. He stretched his arms over his head and lead out a loud yawn, blinking afterwards. He took another look outside, smiling. "Yep… today's gonna be a great day…"

With that, he turned around and headed for the door with wobbly feet, almost tripping with a bedsheet on the way there. He groaned and crouched, picking it up from the ground and folding it, then walked over to the chest and opened it with his free paw, placing the sheet inside and closing the chest. He did this with his right paw, and as he did this he fixed his eyes upon the white markings on his fur. It consisted of a series of lines and drawings that descended from his elbow, covering his whole arm and travelled down up to his wrist, where he could see two lines that went the whole way around it. And on the back of his right paw he could see a much more complicated drawing in the place of the usual white protrusion that most Riolu had. He had a drawing of a white five pointed star, surrounded by ten smaller circles, inside of the which were different drawings. From the very stop, and to the right, he could see a strange vortex, which seemed to be purple colored, a red flame, a sing blue drop of water, a colorless spike, a green tornado, and from there the rest of the circles and drawings, a snowflake, a lightning bolt, a leaf, half of which was dead, a four pointed star and a strange shape that Jake had told him was reminiscent of an hourglass, and finally it returned to the first emblem.

He didn't know why he was looking at it so intently, and as soon as he snapped out of his thoughts he remembered what he was supposed to be doing and walked over to the door, pushing it slightly open and looking back at the room. All the books were in the bookshelf, the window's blinds were wide open and the bed was where it had been the previous night, and there was nothing laying on the floor. Everything was in order, asides from the desktop, which was a complete mess of books, pages and ink. He smiled, content and looked out the window. "A great day… here we go!" He told himself as he walked out the door and shut it behind him. As he walked down the hallway of the house, at the sides of which were four doors, two on each side, he saw the one furthest away from him at the right side open, and out of it walked a shiny Zorua, shaking his head to dry his face of all the water on it.

"Morning Zed! Is anyone else inside?" He asked as he walked over to his best friend, the dark type returning the greeting and putting up a paw. The Riolu smiled and returned the "high paw" as they called it.

"Morning man, and no, there's no one inside. I thought I was the last one to get up…" He chuckled. "Guess I was wrong!" He said, pretty happy that he had gotten up before Eric.

"Hardy har har. You were all lucky I went to bed late yesterday, otherwise we would've had an intense training session this morning!" He exclaimed, raising a paw as he walked inside of the bathroom, Zed laughing behind him.

"Whatever you say man!" He answered with a smile as Eric closed the door. "Good morning everyone!" Eric heard Zed exclaim through the door, his greeting being returned by several other voices outside.

"Damn, he was right about me being last…" Eric bit his lip and walked over to the bucket of clear water to the left of the room, right in front of a mirror. He picked up some water with both of his paws and splashed it on his face, rubbing it and looking at the mirror. He looked like a normal Riolu, although his fur was slightly furrier than average. Funny, since Elly's was the same. He dried his face with a towel nearby and left the bathroom, walking to the right from the bathroom door and entering the main room of the house. It was small, but it was better than nothing. Sitting around the table he found the rest of his companions.

"Good morning! I see everyone's up and awake before me…" He said, waiting for a response from anyone in the group.

"Well, you can thank Elly for that! She was really enthusiastic about waking us up before you did." Lucy said, sitting with her back facing towards the Riolu, turning around to look at him. She looked like a normal Shinx, only that her tail didn't end in a four pointed star, but rather three pointed, and her eyes were emerald green colored.

"Lucy! I told you to keep that a secret!" A voice said from the kitchen, an Eevee walking out, two plates filled with berries floating above her. She looked at Eric, her sky blue eyes glowing, giving him a sheepish smile. "I wanted to get everyone up before you did so that you knew how it felt to wake up last, since you almost always wake up first." She said, explaining her answers. She looked like a normal Eevee, but her fur was a tad longer than a normal one's, with the cream colored fur collar around her neck being extremely fluffy, that the Riolu could say from experience. However, what set her apart from the rest were her beautiful light blue eyes, reminiscent of the color of the sky… and the fact that she had psychic powers she had inherited from her mother. And, although it couldn't be seen underneath her fur, on the back of her front right paw she had the same markings Eric had, only instead of white, they were black.

He smiled at her. "Well, I can assure that you succeeded in doing so. Now… What do we have for breakfast?" He asked, walking over to the table and sitting on one of the two empty chairs, Elly sitting right besides him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. In front of him, a Sneasel, which was focused on reading a newspaper rose his eyes from the page he was reading.

"Our breakfast today consists of a mix of berries, milk and homemade cookies, courtesy of both me and Elly." He said, Elly blushing as he said so. "They are delicious and thoroughly enjoyable, though I recommend you eat them hastily before either Serge or Nox eat them all." Jake said as he returned to reading. He was a normal Sneasel, except for the gems on both his forehead and chest, which were light blue, whilst his fur was dark blue, instead of the normal blue tone that most Sneasels had.

"Oi! These cookies are delicious! You can't blame me, blame yourself and Elly for making them!" A Pidgeot to the ice type's right complained whilst munching on one of the aforementioned cookies. He turned to look at Eric. "Also, good morning man, you've been snoring away the whole morning. Were you doing something yesterday night?" He asked, smiling. Serge was a big Pidgeot, but asides from this fact and his orange eyes, he looked rather normal physically. He had a strange blue pearl tied around his right leg, but he had yet to tell his friends what it actually was and why he had it. He was really secretive about that kind of stuff, so nobody asked him much.

"Yeah, what Serge said. I mean… have you seen this cookie?!" Nox, a Houndour with dark blue eyes exclaimed, pushing forward a strangely shaped cookie. "It looks just like my face! Look!" He pointed at the cookie and Eric took a closer look. Sure enough, the cookie looked strangely similar to the Houndour's face… although it had a rather dumb looking expression **.**

Elly smiled. "Glad you finally noticed! I shaped some of the cookies to look like us with my powers, and I think they look pretty good!" She said. Eric smiled and looked at the cookie pile, spotting one with the shape of his head and grabbing it, eager to see what Elly had done to his face… It certainly did look like him.

"It's like looking into a cookie mirror!" The Riolu exclaimed as he bit off one of his ears… well, his cookie self's ears, that was. "Wait… Is it cannibalism if I eat my cookie self?" He asked with fake concern.

Serge smirked. "Cannibalism? Nah… More like "cookiecide"." He said, waiting for at least a giggle. He did receive some weak chuckles, which were enough for the bird, who leaned back on the chair with his wings behind his head. "Yep… still got it." He muttered to himself with a content smile on his face. The rest of the breakfast was filled with jokes of similar caliber, the group having a fun time before the day truly began. Once breakfast time was over, they picked up everything and got ready to leave. Eric tied his trusty blue scarf around his neck, which was so long that it reached down to his knees, Zed asked for help to tie his new gray kerchief around his neck and everyone in the team grabbed their crystal.

All the members in the team had a Resonance Crystal, a necklace from the which a strange long crystal was hanging. However, they all had different coloured crystals: Eric's was white, Elly's was black, Zed's was a dark purple, Lucy's was yellow, Serge's was light green, Jake's was light blue and Nox's, who had gotten his necklace just recently thanks to a surprise visit from Slew, was red. From what they had been told, the necklaces showed the color of the aura of the one to whom the crystal belonged to.

With that, everyone was ready to head out. "Oh boy here we go… So who's taking town missions today?" Nox asked. Lucy jumped up and rose a paw.

"US!" She shouted as she stuck right besides Zed, who looked at her, blushing.

"Ehh… Yeah! We'll uh… we'll take Town Missions today!" He said, stuttering at the sudden proximity of the electric type.

"Oh we'll see about that, sister!" Elly exclaimed, giving the Shinx a challenging smile as the whole group headed for the door, Eric leading them all.

"Are you challenging me?" Lucy simply asked, a confident smile on her face. Before the Eevee could answer however, Eric opened the main door… and a Vaporeon rushed in.

"OH THANK ARCEUS I'VE FOUND YOU!" He suddenly shouted, surprising everyone and making them back up inside again.

"Woah woah woah! Hold on, who the hell are you?" Serge asked, looking at the Vaporeon, who was really close to him. "And… have you ever heard of personal space, pal?" He asked. The water type backed away, Serge giving him a really weird look. "Thank you." He followed, not really sure of how to respond to the awkward situation… because even after backing away, the Vaporeon was REALLY close to him.

"Ummmm… Alright then that was… weird, I guess? Who are you exactly?" Lucy asked, taking the words straight out of everyone's minds.

The Vaporeon realized he hadn't introduced himself. "Oh forgive my rudeness then! My name is Jonathan, and me and my family have moved to Treasure Town recently." He said.

"Someone moving in? That's odd. Usually it's people moving out and leaving. Why did you come to live in Treasure Town?" Eric asked, pretty curious as to why this Vaporeon was breaking the trend.

"Because of how much one can invest here! After all the destruction caused because of the war, there are several infrastructures which are missing in this town, and I am willing to invest money to rebuild them! And besides, this town is in the shore, meaning that if it had several docks it would be able to trade with merchants and…" Jonathan began explaining the economical, as well as personal reasons that had brought him to Treasure Town, which Eric was actually interested in. Whilst the two blue pokemon exchanged these ideas, the rest of their members began whispering.

"Wait… what did he mean by pokemon moving out?" Nox asked.

"Pokemon are leaving Treasure Town to live in other cities or continents altogether. I've heard that a lot of them are moving to the capital in search for spiritual guidance." Serge explained.

"Spiritual guidance? You mean as in praying to Arceus and all of that? Why?" Lucy questioned.

"The two things are related, are they not? Think about it: A year ago, the equivalent of the devil appeared, and with the help of it's followers succeeded in resurrecting and would have destroyed the world, had he not been stopped by our team. The response to this would be pokemon panicking. Who is to say Giratina will not come back in the future? Or Blake, for that matter? That is the reason pokemon are moving out of Treasure Town, since this was the city where not only the most brutal battles and killings took place, but also where our base is located. If Blake does ever come back, where do you think he will strike first?" Jake explained, Zed and Serge nodding as they were previously aware of the situation.

"And at the same time, if the devil exists, then that means the only who can stop him is god. The capital is filled with Temples of Arceus, which to anyone who is religious would mean is the safest place in the planet. And they would be right, since the capital is not only extremely large and well guarded, but also the religious, political and cultural centre of our current society." The dark type finished, Lucy and Nox finally being caught up to the whole situation.

"Well… I guess that makes sense, somehow… Still, I think that's stupid. You guys were the ones who saved the world, yet they're idrolatizing Arceus and running away from where you are? That makes zero sense!" Nox exclaimed.

"Well, you should hear about the impostors then. There have been pokemon running around impersonating as us and scamming innocent pokemon that needed help desperately. We have tried to stop them, but it's gotten to a point where almost nobody knows who the real Team Star is anymore. Like, what we look like and stuff." Lucy said, Nox's eyes going wide open.

"Wow… That is just… dumb, on so many levels." He muttered to himself. "Then again… I ran into some fakers on the way to finding you guys, and some said that the real Team Star was here, others said in Voltaire… Yeah, I can see where the problem is now. It's still so dumb though…" Nox complained.

"Agreed. Not only that, but… we have received visits of many pokemon who at first did not believe we were the "real deal" as they said. It was only after we successfully completed their request that they believed we were the true Team Star. It is extremely worrying. Who knows, maybe in a year's time nobody will know what the real Team Star is or what they look like… We haven't really been running around and announcing ourselves that much." Jake said.

"Awww what?! Why not?" The fire type asked, now legitimately confused because of this decision.

"Because we don't want to, Nox." This time, it was Elly who responded. "Nine months of the past year we spent… well, hiding, somewhat, and the previous months have been the only time where we've been doing missions and appearing in the public eye. And not only that, but… we just don't want that much attention. Neither me or Eric want pokemon following us or moving to Treasure Town, or hell, camping just outside of our house just so they get a look at us. No. We want to be modest and help pokemon like we always dreamed of." She said, then coughed. "Well… like I always dreamed of, but… You can understand that, right Nox?" Elly finished her explanation.

Nox didn't understand her at all. He would love to be half as famous as the pokemon he lived with, yet here they were, telling him that the fame wasn't really worth it. Still, he sighed. "Alright yeah… I guess I can get behind that." He responded. Elly smiled, happy that he understood their decision.

Eric meanwhile was trying to end the conversation with Jonathan. "Well… Yeah I guess you've got a point there, but it would destroy some of our local culture to have strangers moving around all the time, right?" Eric asked, Jonathan unable to find an answer for that question. "But anyways! We really got sidetracked. Look, Jonathan, this was a really nice conversation, but we have to leave and…" Before he could finish his sentence, the eeveelution interrupted him, yet again.

"OH! I FORGOT! Team Star I need your help!" He shouted, everyone giving him weird looks and sighing. "My daughter has been kidnapped!" He exclaimed, and everyone looked at him, shocked.

"WHAT?! Why didn't ya tell us before?!" Serge asked, annoyed that they had lost so much time talking about such a mundane matter.

"I… uh…I kinda forgot?" He tried to excuse himself, giving them a sheepish smile. This response however, made Elly extremely angry.

"You FORGOT?! You're her father, and you forgot to tell us your daughter is missing and could be in danger?!" She screamed at him, everyone in the house turning to look at her, surprised. Eric called her name once, trying to calm her down. "The one thing you should love the most in the world and now that you're missing you're more interested in finding ways to earn money and line up your pockets?!" She screamed, Eric calling her a second time, this time even louder. "What kind of father does that?!" She finally asked the question everyone had on their minds.

"ELLY!" Eric shouted.

"WHAT?!" She screamed back at her mate, who backed away. "You know I'm right! You can't possibly forget that your daughter is missing! You're a horrible father if you do so!" She answered.

"Yes, but that does not mean that you can shout at him and make him feel worse about the whole situation, Elly!" The Riolu shouted back. The duo then began bickering about the matter of Jonathan being a bad father.

"Wow… she's really touchy with fatherly issues." Nox pointed out, Zed, Lucy, Serge and Jake visibly cringing. "What?" He asked.

"Ya don't wanna know kid, ya don't wanna know…" Serge simply responded, leaving a puzzled Nox, but he didn't press the issue further, because he knew it would get him nowhere.

The discussion ended with an angry Eric and an angry Elly, who then turned their attention to Jonathan, who was visibly shaken by all of this. "Uh… Well… As I was saying… My daughter has gone missing, and I need help in finding her. I have reasons to believe that she has been… kidnapped." He said. Elly opened her mouth to say something again, but a stern look from Eric kept her mouth shut, biting down on her tongue and turning around, growling and muttering in a low voice.

"What makes you think that it's a kidnapping?" Eric asked. Jonathan sighed and opened a small bag he was carrying at his side. From it he pulled out a letter, and holding it in his maw, handed it over to Eric, who inspected the envelope first, then opened the letter as he gave the envelope to Jake. "Look at it. See if you find something odd." Jake nodded, already noticing that something about this was really fishy, and that Eric had noticed long ago. Eric unfolded the letter and looked at it. There weren't written letters on it, but rather letters that had been cut out of other places, such as newspapers, and had been plastered onto the paper, making the following sentences.

" _If you wish to find your daughter alive, bring this letter to Team Star._

 _Come to Mount Bristle. Bring 10000 poke. You have two days."_

"I received the letter yesterday night. Please… save her." Jonathan said, pulling out another bag, which was much heavier, placing it on the ground and pushing it towards the team. "Here is the money… please. Save her, I beg of you." He repeated, bowing down on the ground, now crying. Eric looked at the Vaporeon.

"We will do it. Now Jonathan, return to your home. We will return with your daughter…" Eric trailed off, since they didn't know what her name was.

"Emily. Her name is Emily." The Vaporeon finished.

"We will return with Emily tomorrow morning. Now go home and be with your mate. Tell her that everything will be fine." Eric reassured him, and Jonathan left the house, a worried look on his face. Once he was far away enough, Eric closed the door. "I don't trust this one bit." Eric said.

"What? Why do you say that? He's a father that's worried for his daughter." Zed said. The Riolu shook his head in response.

"It's not him who I don't trust. Although he's kind of forgetful, and probably a horrible father…" Elly was about to open her maw to say something. "Yes, I agree with you on that, Elly! But the problem wasn't that you thought that, the problem was that you said it to his face!" The fighting type shouted, trying to avoid that same discussion to rise once more. Elly huffed and looked away again. "Anyways… It's not him who I don't trust. It's that letter. The details on it are fairly scarce for it to be a threat letter." Eric pointed out.

"And not only that, but… This ramson is rather small, if we take into consideration that this Jonathan character is an affluent pokemon. For this reason, I believe that the kidnapper isn't interested in the money, but rather our presence at Mount Bristle. The probability of this mission being a trap is rather high." Jake concluded, Eric nodding and agreeing with his deductions.

"So then… we're not going?" Lucy asked, rather confused.

"We are going, Lucy. This pokemon has been kidnapped. Whether or not it's a trap is irrelevant. We have to save her, it's our job. What I am suggesting however, is for all of us to go together and have our eyes open at all times. If someone is willing to kidnap a pokemon just so they can attack us… They're either incredibly dumb or powerful enough to make them think they can take us on." Eric stated, everyone listening to his words and evaluating what he was saying. "What do you guys think? I'm not making the call unless everyone here agrees." He said.

One by one, the rest of the members agreed to this idea, although Elly simply nodded in agreement, Eric rolling his eyes and sighing. "Alright, then let's move out. You guys go first." Eric said, Jake leading the way out of the house as Eric and Elly stayed inside. The Riolu turned to look at the Eevee. "What else do you want me to do Elly? I already apologized for talking to you like that, yet you're still angry with me. Why?" He inquired, Elly glaring at him.

"I don't want you to talk to me like that when we're in front of complete strangers! Did you see the looks that guy was giving us?! You were embarrassing me, Eric!" Elly exclaimed.

"You were literally screaming at his face how much of a bad father he was! Maybe he was the worst father ever, but even then there's no reason for you to scream it at his face! What do you think the poor guy is thinking now? Sure, maybe it's his fault that his daughter went missing, but you screaming at him isn't going to help. Don't you think he's had enough with blaming himself AND his mate blaming him too, only to come to us seeking for help and turns out he is also being shouted at by the pokemon that are his only hope of finding his daughter?!" He shouted at all of this at Eevee, who took in all of his words and realized that screaming at Jonathan for losing his daughter hadn't been the best idea.

"Now that you say it… Yeah, you're right Eric." She said.

Eric sighed. "Look Elly… I get it. You're angry with him, livid even. And I understand that. Considering what happened with Blake, seeing a father being so careless with a daughter must've either brought back some unwanted memories and you must've vented out on the poor guy. Am I right?" Eric asked. Elly closed her eyes and slowly nodded.

"I just don't understand how some pokemon just… don't care about their families. I thought my father to be a monster, but then it turns out there's more pokemon like him, albeit so far all of them have been… better, so to say." Elly looked up at Eric. "I shouldn't have screamed at him like that, I know that, but at the time I really just couldn't restrain myself!" The normal type tried to excuse her actions, and the Riolu just rolled his eyes and smiled.

"Alright… I'll let it slide Elly, since we have to go right now. But we're going to continue this conversation later, because… you need to let it go already Elly. Sometime in the future we're going to bump into an Umbreon or Espeon, and I don't want you to freak out again, alright?" He asked her. She nodded, giving him teary eyes. He couldn't say no to those teary eyes. "C'mere, you silly ball of fur." He opened his arms and Elly walked up to him and hugged him, the couple hugging eachother for some time, enjoying the moment…

"Ahem!" The sound of someone coughing interrupted them, and they turned to look at the door to see an amused Pidgeot standing there, holding the door open for all to see. "Are we really going to have a repeat of what happened the other time?" He asked, Eric and Elly breaking the hug, blushing whilst walking over to the entrance. "I really didn't know if I should come in or not. Last thing I want in my mind before we begin today is the image of you two making cubs!" He shouted, everyone laughing at the expense of Eric and Elly, who were blushing madly. They didn't utter a word as they locked the door and began walking, heading to Mount Bristle.

Little did they know they would be away from home for a looong time…

* * *

"My turn! I spy, with my little eye… Something gray!" Nox exclaimed. Everyone began looking around.

"The mountain?" Zed asked, pointing at Mount Bristle, which was quickly approaching.

"Really?! Come on, how'd you guess it so fast?!" Nox asked, clearly annoyed.

"Well it's the first thing we can see, you jackass. It's where we are headed!" Lucy responded, to Nox's annoyance.

"I thought it was so obvious nobody would even consider it… It worked out for Jake!" Nox exclaimed, pointing at the ice type in front of him, who merely turned his head to glance at him from the corner of his eye.

"That's because Jake's smart and you're not!" Lucy exclaimed, Nox opening his mouth to complain, but Serge cut them all off as he swooped back down.

"Hey, we're almost there." He said, landing on the ground and standing still for a few moments, placing a wing on his head.

"Hey, you alright?" Zed asked the bird, a little worried.

"Yeah, I'm ok. I've just a bit of a headache… can we go faster, I really want to get away from this area. Seems like the air here is a little… thinner, for some reason." As Serge said this, the Sneasel in front of them turned around to look at the bird, confused.

"Thinner? The air does not feel any different from before." He said.

"Look, I really don't feel ok, alright? So let's just get the hell out of here and to the mountain, alright?" Serge snapped at Jake all of a sudden, surprising everyone in the group.

"Alright then… I challenge you guys to a race! Last one to the mountain is a Slowpoke!" Lucy exclaimed as she dashed forwards, leaving a trail of dust behind her. Zed sighed and took off running behind her, whilst Nox called for her name and also started running. Eric and Elly looked at Serge, then looked in front of them, both of the pokemon tensing up.

" _Serge isn't feeling well? Weird… Especially when we consider where we are right now."_ Elly said into Eric's mind. The Riolu nodding. If his memory was right, one of those rock formations in front of them was the door to "The Sanctuary of Rebirth", but this time around they didn't have any fragments with them, so the door would most likely not appear. However, they too felt extremely weird, and not just physically, but also… just felt in a weird spot, though it was normal, considering that the last time they had gone to Mount Bristle had been about two years ago.

" _Time flies, doesn't it?"_ The Riolu asked his mate.

" _Hmmmhmmm… They aren't exactly happy memories, but I think they're worth remembering. After all, it was our first successful mission which made us somehow skyrocket in popularity."_ She answered, Eric nodding. However, there was something else eating away at him, and it had to do with their current mission. Of all places to take a hostage… this mountain? Again?

Fifteen minutes later the four pokemon got to the foot of the mountain, where the rest of their companions were waiting. Zed and Nox were panting heavily, whilst Lucy was just standing on a rock with a wide grin on her face. "Let me guess… You won, didn't you?" Serge asked the Shinx, the bird feeling much better than before.

"What do you think?" She asked, feeling really proud of herself. Nox glared at her and spit out a small ember, which burnt her paw slightly, making her jolt up from her stop and stare at the Houndour with hatred. "Oh I'll get you some time…" She muttered under her breath, getting down from the rock and looking at the approaching pokémon.

The leader of the team looked at the mountain. "Alright… let's get to climbing. Remember: Eyes and ears wide open, we could be jumped at any moment." He reminded them. Everyone nodded, the group beginning their ascension up the mountain. What none of them knew, however, was that someone watched from higher up, it's eyes fixated on the group's shapes as they moved closer towards the mountain. Eric suddenly got the feeling they were being watched, and immediately looked up.

There was nothing there.

The Riolu kept his eyes on that spot. "Open your eyes. Someone's watching us." He told everyone else, readying his aura. This last decision made everyone tense up and worry, also preparing for battle as they began moving up. Minutes passed, and they soon became hours as the group slowly made their way up the mountain by following trails and either jumping or flying up whenever the terrain was too steep.

Everyone was reacting differently to the ascension. Eric and Elly weren't struggling a whole lot, since it wasn't the first time they had climbed that mountain, but that didn't mean they weren't tired like Lucy, who was as active as ever. Zed was getting along just fine, though was panting, Nox was a mess of sweat and heavy panting and neither Jake or Serge showed signs of being tired. "Are we… there… yet?" Nox asked, resting his head on the rocks as he climbed up. Eric crouched down and extended a paw, the Houndour shaking his head and getting up himself. He didn't want Eric's help… he wanted to overcome him! He wanted to climb to the top before he did!

"We are much closer than before, but we've got a solid… I'd say thirty minutes?" Eric asked, not really sure himself. Nox shook his head.

"I don't care… I'm still gonna beat you to the top!" He shouted, his strength returning as he began dashing ahead and climbing rocks quite quickly, to Eric's surprise and horror.

"Nox! Wait!" The Riolu shouted, the fire type showing no signs of stopping. Everyone else began running as well, the entire team climbing up the rest of the mountain until Nox dropped to the ground, exhausted, turning around to look at Eric with a smile on his face.

"How… do you… like that?" He asked the Riolu, who had the expected look of anger on his face, but it wasn't anger because Nox had "won".

"Nox you hotheaded imbecile! What did I tell you about running ahead?! We are in the middle of mission and there's a high chance that a strong foe is lurking up ahead! You did the only thing I told you to not do, and that is to go on ahead and separate yourself from the group! You could've easily been attacked and we wouldn't have been able to do anything!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, grabbing the Houndour and shaking him back and forth.

"Hey woah woah! Calm down Eric! It was all under control, I swear!" He kept shouting as the Riolu shook him continuously. Eventually Jake and Elly intervened to separate the two.

"Eric, calm down!" Elly shouted at him, the Riolu trying to struggle against her grip, but he eventually gave up, glaring at Nox.

"You bombastic moron… You're not the strongest pokemon in the world! You may be able to take me on and hold your ground, but just because I was there when we saved the world doesn't mean there is no one stronger than I am!" Eric exclaimed.

"I know that, dude! You need to chill Eric! Besides, what is the worst that could happen?! We have found no signs of life so far, and we've been climbing this mountain for Arceus knows how long!" Nox shouted, now getting angry as well.

"And even then, those are NO EXCUSES for disobeying the ONLY rule I enforced upon you guys right before we left home, and yet there you go, running ahead waiting to be jumped on or worse!" The Riolu shouted once more.

"Dude come on, what's the worse that…" Before Nox could finish that sentence however, something soared the air… and directly towards them. Before anyone could say anything to warn the Riolu, he noticed the sudden silence that befell them and in that instant rolled to the side. The projectile flew straight above Nox's head and stuck itself into rocks behind them. They all glanced at it, and saw that it was some sort of blue transparent sword. Elly recognized it immediately as a psychic sword, and then everyone looked at the direction where it had come from.

They froze on the spot.

They all found themselves looking at a figure standing at the very tip of a pointy rock. The creature's true identity, however, was hidden underneath the cloak that covered it from head to feet and that waved in the air because of the wind. It was staring down at them, and Nox found himself locking eyes with the creature. He felt as if pressure was building up on his head, as if it was being crushed by some invisible force, his senses going numb… but it was interrupted as he heard a shout and Elly stepped in between them.

The Eevee stared back at the creature, which couldn't keep it's eyes away from her's. The two were now locked into a psychic fight, where victory would mean the other's destruction. To her surprise, the creature was incredibly powerful, managing to withstand her assault, but also struggling against her. Before it could do anything else however, Eric howled out and hurled an aura sphere. With incredible accuracy, the sphere hit the creature head on, the smoke that rose between them, as well as the knockback from the explosion breaking the psychic struggle.

"Everybody! Run!" He ordered. Everyone began sprinting up the trail, right behind Eric, Elly and Nox recovering quickly and taking off after the rest too, quickly catching up to the group. A sudden crack noise was heard and Eric turned his head slightly to face that way. He saw the creature standing on that same spot again. Suddenly, however, the figure became a black blur, and then disappeared right in front of Eric's eyes with the same noise it had made. The next instant Elly jumped in front of him with a psychic blade to block another incoming blade from the creature. This time, however, it was right in front of them.

" _Go!"_ Elly mentally screamed as she swatted the blade away, Eric throwing spheres at their pursuer whilst the group took a detour, taking a trail that was much more dangerous, but would most likely get them up to the top quicker. All previous signs of exhaustion were gone now as everyone in the group quite literally ran for their lives. Their foe seemed to be able to either move at blinding speeds or could teleport. They came out to the summit of the mountain, which was surrounded by rocks and walls of stone, near one of which they could see a huge hole. " _Over there! We need to get inside!"_ The Eevee screamed, running as fast as she could, Lucy dashing ahead of everyone and standing near the entrance and looking behind them. The creature was right on their toes, running after them with two psychic blades on each hand.

" _Guys watch out!"_ The Shinx communicated to them as she charged her fur with electricity. She didn't say anything else before she launched a thunderbolt directly at their follower, everyone jumping to the sides or ducking as they knew it was coming. Their foe also seemed to know it was coming, because it also dodged it, jumping up into the air, much higher than a normal jump should allow it. However, once it was in midair, it was easy for Serge to fly up and charge into it head on, the creature being knocked away much further than the Pidgeot thought, as if it was somehow lighter than everyone else.

After this, Serge swooped back down and headed straight for the cave, where everyone was waiting for him. They ran in and found that there were some stone steps leading down. "Down the stairs! Quick!" Eric shouted, fully knowing of where they were going. The entire group ran down the stairs, Serge having some trouble doing so because of how wide he was, but he eventually made it down there along with the rest of his team mates. What they saw downstairs came through as a shock to everyone besides Eric and Elly, who already knew what was down there. Rows and rows of jail cells on the sides of the cave, all of them wide open, the smell of filth and deprivation hanging in the air.

"What… what the hell is this place? A prison?" Nox asked, looking all over the place and taking a look into some cells, quickly backing away as the foul smells became more intense inside of them.

"The Collector's secret hideout… where he held every single one of the pokemon he captured." Eric explained.

"He was an Alakazam who was obsessed with collecting every single pokemon species that existed and keeping them locked up in those cells. He managed to capture hundreds of them… and I almost became one of his victims too, hadn't it been for Eric." Elly said, looking at her now mate, remembering the whole incident. It had probably been around that time when she had begun feeling something for him…

"We managed to find his hideout thanks to one of my visions." Eric lied. That wasn't how it had gone, but even now he was ashamed to admit what he had done. As far as he knew… he was probably dead. "Anyways… we're stuck here until we figure out a way to fight against that bastard… we have to make a strategy." He sentenced, turning to look at Jake. "Jake, have a look around and see what we can use to our advantage. Elly, Lucy and Serge, you come with me to try and see if there's any other exits. Nox and Zed, you follow every word Jake says, ok?" The Riolu ordered, assigning roles to everyone, the six pokemon around him nodding in agreement and splitting up.

Jake looked around and then glanced back at the entrance. The stairway was narrow, so… maybe using something to block it would buy then some time. Then again, he had no idea of how much time they had before their pursuer found them, so he decided to improvise with what he saw. "Nox, Zed, I want you to help me grab anything that is made out of wood or any other flammable materials and toss it at the stairs. Now!" He ordered, the two pokemon following his orders dashing into the jail cells.

Nox flinched again when the smell got to his nostrils, and he could hear Zed gagging in the next cell, but he knew he had to suck it up and do it. That guy was right on their toes, and he felt guilty for having provoked all of that… For now he decided to push those competitive thoughts aside. He would apologize to Eric about that later, even if it hurt his pride. Whilst they arranged this first line of defense, Eric and the rest of his team went deeper into the cave, trying to find anything that resembled another exit.

"Can you guys see anything?" Eric asked, his eyes closed as he used his aura senses.

"Funny, because this whole cave is pitch black, so no, I can't see anything Eric. Though you saying that with that weird… X-Ray vision you have basically means that you can't see anything either." Serge said, the Riolu nodding in response, confirming the Pidgeot's fears.

"I can't see anything either, and I am a walking light source." Lucy pointed out, Elly still looking around.

"There has to be something in here. It just makes no sense that there would be only one entrance to this place, and there wasn't a place where he could just… Escape or hide?" Elly questioned, everyone agreeing with her point. It didn't make sense when she put it that way.

They kept looking for a while, and eventually they stumbled across what seemed to be a wooden door. The Eevee opened it with her powers, everyone hoping to find something like a hallway or stairs behind it… but what they found was a small room with a table, a straw bed and many books and consumed wax candles. "Well… we found the room where he lived in… That bastard slept in here with all of those poor pokemon just outside? What a si-" Serge didn't get to finish that sentence, because all of a sudden, something inside of the room moved. It was small, and it had been hiding in a corner the whole time, and nobody had paid attention to it.

"He.. Hello?" A voice asked. It sounded young, nobody daring to set a foot inside of the room.

Eric swallowed the saliva in his mouth. "Hello? Who are you? Show yourself, we won't… attack you." He said, ready to go back on that promise in the off chance that something big jumped out of there. What came out of the room, however, wasn't exactly big. In fact it was small, brown, and furry, and it reminded him a lot of…

"Whoa, who are you? You don't happen to know the mister that brought me here, would you?" The Eevee in front of them asked, Elly looking at her with wide eyes. In fact, everyone was looking at her wide eyed. This was the last place they would've expected to find an Eevee… But what was it doing there anyways?

"Wait a second…" Lucy then remembered something. "Are you Emily?" She asked. The Eevee turned to face her as the mention of her name.

"Yeah! How do you know my name? Are you friends?! I like friends! Not like that liar in the cloak… Well… he didn't really lie, he told me "Wait here, and friends will come to see you." And I've been waiting here for hours and hours and nobody came and I was getting scared because I was alone and then I heard voices and I hid in the corner and then when you guys appeared his promise came true!" Emily took a long breath after speaking so quickly. "My name is Emily! Emily the Eevee!" She said.

Eric bit his lip. This Eevee couldn't be that old… "Umm… Hi Emily, my… name is Eric. These are… Elly, Lucy and… Serge." He pointed to each of the pokemon as he pronounced their names, the mentioned pokemon waving at the Eevee or saying "hi" with a smile. "Your father told us to come rescue you… Are you hurt?" He asked.

Emily shook her head. "Nope, I'm just fine! The mister in the black coat was pretty nice! Except for… leaving me alone… But I can forgive him, because he brought me tons of friends to play with!" She exclaimed.

"Woah woah woah. The guy in the black coat?!" Serge asked. They all knew who it was, and realized that there was something weird going on. "So… you weren't kidnapped?" The bird asked. She shook her head.

"Nope! He came up to me and told me if I wanted to meet some friends, and I agreed! He then put a… hand? Paw? Claw? I don't know, but he touched my head and when I blinked… there was funny noise and I was here! Then he told me to wait here and I got scared because I was alone and…" She was silenced as Serge put a wing on her mouth.

"Ok, I think we got the gist of it… " He said with a nervous smile, looking at Eric. "What do you think?" The bird asked their leader. Before the blue furred pokemon could answer however, Lucy stepped up to the Eevee, who was playfully fighting against Serge's feathers.

"Didn't your parents tell you about stranger danger?" The Shinx asked, clearly worried, because this pokemon had absolutely no idea of the kind of mess they were all in.

"Nope. What's that? Is it some kind of new adult game?" Emily asked. Everyone looked at her, confused, whilst Elly became enraged in her own mind.

" _When we go back to town I am personally going to kick his ass!"_ She screamed into her mate's mind.

" _Not if I get to him first."_ He answered, the Eevee responding with a strange look, raising an eyebrow at his response. He looked at her too, shrugging. " _What? I'm angry as well."_ He just answered.

"Alright look… let's just sort out all of this stuff, and once we're out of this hellhole…" Serge looked around. "Literally... " He coughed. "We'll take you back to your family, alright? How does that sound?" The bird suggested.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Aww man… Do we really have to go back to him? I wanted to spend more time with you guys…" She said,

"Hey, you live in Treasure Town now, right?" Elly asked. Emily nodded, still looking sad. "Well, it just so happens we live there too, so you can come visit us anytime you want and play! How does that sound?" Elly asked. Emily's face lit up.

"Really?!" She asked, Elly looked at Eric, who shrugged, and the bigger Eevee smiled and nodded in response. "Yay!" Emily jumped up and down in her spot. "Finally! New friends!" She started cheering, everyone around her finding her happiness amusing. Not before long however, this short break was interrupted by other shouts. These ones from surprise and alarm. "Guys, get over here quick!" A voice shouted from the other side of the huge cavern.

"Crap, that was Nox! Come on let's go!" Serge said, flapping his wings and running towards the entrance. Eric and Elly also began running, Lucy staying behind with Emily.

"Stay behind me!" She ordered the Eevee as she dashed towards the entrance, the younger pokemon sticking behind her. They got to the entrance quickly, where they saw a burning pile of straw and wood blocking what was probably the only entrance. The problem, however, was that their foe seemed to have overcome this obstacle. Serge roared out as he jumped up, bringing both of his wings down and trying to cut the cloaked creature, but it seemingly vanished before he could hit it. It reappeared behind him and was about to strike once more, but before it could to that Eric summoned his light staff and swung at him, the creature turning around to meet the energy weapon, both of them clashing, sparks of pure energy surging.

Elly came in after that and slammed their attacker with her psychic powers, their enemy incapable of reacting quickly enough and being slammed into the far wall, cracks appearing around the area where he crashed. "Elly! No holding back!" The Riolu announced all of a sudden, his words surprising the Eevee as he dashed forward, dismissing his staff, his right fist enveloped in a strange purple cloud and slamming it into the wall where the cloaked creature was. It missed however, as it teleported to his side, but Eric threw another charged punch at the floor where ti was standing, rocks flying everywhere. It jumped up into the air, and Eric quickly followed up by channeling aura into his paws and creating a dozen of small purple aura spheres, which all shot towards his enemy.

It began teleporting continuously, the spheres tracking it as it teleported around, trying to avoid them. The spheres crashed into the walls, ceiling and floor, rocks flying everywhere as the projectiles missed. The whole team stood together, looking at their opponent, who landed on the ground, rolling back and sliding back. It looked up, Eric trying his hardest to look under the cloak with his aura senses. It was useless however, for some reason.

"Who are you?!" Eric asked, resummoning his light staff. The shape didn't answer, and in response everyone else in the team readied for battle. Apparently, there was no way to avoid this fight. Emily hid behind the Shinx that had escorted her there whilst the electric type's fur charged with electricity.

" _Is it a pokemon? I cannot tell... "_ Jake asked through the crystals.

" _Me neither, but… whatever it is, it's out for our heads, so we've got to take it out."_ Eric concluded. " _No holding back. This foe… doesn't seem to be a normal pokemon to begin with…"_ He ordered, the shape before him bringing back memories… that shape was oddly familiar, but he couldn't put his paw on it. Everyone crouched down, ready to run towards the creature, who simply stood there with two psychic blades in each hand. The battle was about to begin…

All of a sudden however, the mountain began trembling violently. They all looked around, confused as to what exactly was going on. The mountain shook even more, and to their collective surprise a white crack appeared in the middle of the air, and a claw burst through it, then another one, and both claws ripped open a tear through the which a large pokemon came out. It was bipedal, with it's body being mostly white but with many pink and purple stripes all over it's torso and arms, and two huge pink pearls encrusted into it's shoulders.

Jake recognized it immediately. "Palkia?!" He shouted out loud, recognizing the pokemon from the many history books he had read. The legendary pokemon of space looked down at the pokemon before him, who were unsure of whether it was an ally… or a foe.

"THOU ART FOOLS!" It's voice boomed in the enclosed space, almost sending them flying away. "THOU CANNOT HIDE YOUR HEINOUS CRIMES FROM MY GAZE." It sentenced.

"Woah woah woah, slow down will ya?! What are you talking about? Why are you screaming at us?!" Nox asked.

"THOU CANNOT FOOL ME. THOU ARE GUILTY OF TEARING THROUGH THE FABRIC OF SPACE AND TELEPORT WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. THOU HAVE VIOLATED. YOU SHALL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED!" It's voice was really loud, and the fact that it echoed in the cavern didn't help either, the whole mountain shaking violently with every word Palkia spoke.

"Hey buddy, we didn't do anything! Not only that but you're interrupting something pal, so can you leave this for later?!" Nox asked, his words somehow offending Palkia.

"DO NOT SPEAK BACK TO ME, YOU VERMIN! I SHALL RID THE WORLD OF YOU FOOLISH CREATURES!" He roared out all of a sudden, putting both of his claws together. "AS PUNISHMENT… I EXPEL YOU OUT OF THIS WORLD, AND SENTENCE YOU TO FOREVER BE EXILED IN ANOTHER DIMENSION!" He sentenced.

Everyone went wide eyed, Eric stepping forward. "Palkia wait, we're…!" He wasn't able to finish that sentence as some sort of black hole appeared between Palkia's claws. He didn't move move from it's spot, but the rest of the pokemon had nothing to grab onto, and they were slowly lifted up from the ground and towards the hole. "No!" Eric exclaimed as he turned around and launched a water string to the ground, sticking to the rock floor and allowing him to resist the force of the pull. Elly managed to bite on his tail and keep herself from flying into the hole, then Lucy, then Zed, Pidgeot managed to fight the force by flying as fast as he could and Jake was forced to grab onto the Zorua's tail, with Emily biting on his leg in order to keep herself from being teleported and Nox, who bit the last Eevee's tail. The eight pokemon struggled against the force, but it was useless.

"Everybody… hold on!" Eric commanded to his team as the pull became stronger. Unbeknownst to them all, the cloaked figure had jumped into the black hole, mostly willingly. Because it knew that they wouldn't be able to fight against it eternally… thus deciding to wait them wherever they would arrive. Eric felt how his own bones were giving out to the immense force that was pulling them in, making the rip even bigger by widening the space between it's claws, the water string that was attaching them to the ground become longer and thinner…

" _We're gonna fucking die! Holy shit, we're going to die!"_ Nox kept screaming into their minds whilst everyone got into an argument, Jake trying to his hardest to come up with a solution to their predicament.

" _Shut up, Nox! Eric, we need to distract Palkia so that it stops the rift! Someone has to attack before it's too late!"_ He told them.

" _And how exactly do you want us to do that?! We are all barely hanging on to eachother!"_ Lucy screamed back. Eric saw the tendril become thinner and longer, getting them a little closer to the vortex.

"Guys! We need to do something!" He reminded everyone. But his team mates were too busy fighting with eachother and trying to come up with absurd plans that the others just wouldn't agree on because they were too risky or downright impossible. Jake was overwhelmed. There was no way for them to get out of this one. Nox was crying, as he was the closest to the vortex and would be the first to "die". Emily was scared as hell too, Zed was focusing on trying to hold onto Lucy's tail for dear life, not only his', but also of the ones behind him. Serge was silent, focused on flying, Lucy was swearing constantly into their minds and Elly was trying to focus enough to grab something or create some kind of diversion to stop Palkia…

Eric saw with his very own eyes as the string just snapped, unable to withstand the strength to the which it was being subjected. There was a slight moment when everything went silent, as everyone felt their breakfast keep still for just a moment. There was, in fact, a single instant of stillness and silence… before they all screamed as they were sucked into the vortex one by one, Serge falling in after them, unable to keep himself flying for that long, everyone struggling to grab onto someone's paw or hand to not lose themselves in the darkness they all went into…

* * *

"Live news at 11, with your hosts… Randalf Martinez and Sara Ortiz." A voice announced, the aforementioned man and woman appearing behind a counter.

"Thank you." The woman said, sitting down on a chair and pulling out some papers. She was a blond woman wearing a suit, whilst the man had black hair, also wearing suit and a tie, his hair looking really slick. "Now, onto the news: Yesterday the Pokeball Factory just outside of town was victim to vandalism, as this morning concerned workers contacted the authorities when they found the lock of the smelting aisle had been forced. However, it is unknown who got into the factory itself and what they did, though the police's main focus is now centered on a supervisor who stayed late to watch the smelting process and has apparently gone missing. More on that later." Sara stopped talking and let Randalf speak next.

"It has been two months since the tragedy that took place in the Evergreen Park, where a rigged explosive charge detonated, killing fifteen children, injuring six and twenty pokemon that went missing or died. Today, two months after the attack, a monument in memory of the victims has been finished, with the families and friends of the victims attending and mourning for their loses once more." Just as Randalf said this, the camera was about to cut to the view of the new monument, but all of a sudden, on live TV, the space between the cameras and the counter was ripped in half, some kind of black, purplish hole appearing… and then eight pokemon fell right through it.

"Watch out!" Nox shouted as he crashed down on the floor, hurting his back in the process. Emily cheered as she fell on top of the Houndour, who howled out and pushed her off, quickly rolling away before the next pokemon came through. Jake landed on the ground and rolled immediately, but found himself hitting the counter head on, almost blacking out. Zed cried out as he came through the portal, with Lucy landing on top of him, and on top of her Serge crashed down, and then Eric and finally Elly, who made everyone underneath her groan in pain. The hole closed behind them

"Holy hell… who just fell on us? They need to cut down on whatever the hell they eat…" Serge muttered, Elly looking down at him, tempted to kick the Pidgeot, but she couldn't reach him from up there. "Anyways… where the hell are…" He stopped in the middle of that sentence as he took a look around them, and saw something that made his eyes go wide open, his beak almost falling to the floor. Nox got up, feeling really dizzy.

"Oh god… I feel like crap… I think I'm gonna throw up." He stated as he rushed behind the counter, noises being heard behind it before Nox limped out from behind it. "Well… there goes breakfast… anyways where are…" He also noticed the same thing Serge had, and that everyone else in the group was slowly noticing. They were surrounded by humans. Breathing, living and standing humans. And not only that, but there were also pokemon amongst them…

"What… the fuck?!" Serge asked out loud.

"Are those… humans?! Why are there humans here?! Where are we even?!" Lucy asked, clearly shocked. Zed hid behind the rest of his companions, but stepped forward as he realized they were all preparing for a fight. He was surprised at first, but then realized why they were getting ready to fight, as he saw how the humans around them were inching closer, with their pokemon right behind them, and even some humans in black uniforms approaching steadily.

Eric prepared his light staff, Elly was about to bring out her psychic blades, Zed's claws became longer whilst glowing purple, Lucy's fur being charged with electricity, the edges of Serge's wings giving out a silverish glow, Jake preparing his claws and flames coming of Nox's claws and the corners of his mouth. The only who didn't prepare was Emily, who went to hiding behind Nox, the Eevee trembling in fear behind the fire type. Jake looked around the area, trying to find someplace where they could escape. There was nothing to be heard asides from whispers and coughing, and the humans around them were just as surprised as they were.

All of a sudden… In an instant the area around them was gone, and the space was severely reduced as well. They all suddenly felt as if they were put into a small confined space. Emily was at the bottom, laying on her back, with Nox right on top of her, the two of them getting a good look of the other's… bottom bits. Nox just stared at them as best as he could with her tail getting in the way, whilst she had no problem getting a good look too. "Hey, are we about to play one of those adult games?" She asked. Clearly, she had no idea of what was going on.

On top of Nox was Serge, who was on his side with his wing folded in a really weird way. It wasn't broken, or else he would be screaming in agony, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either. However, it was more than enough space to hit Nox's head as he just made a dumb smile. "Focus man!" He ordered, Nox groaning as he winced at the blow to his head.

Jake was lying upside down on top of Serge, right in front of him and crumpled up Lucy who was complaining about how uncomfortable she was and right on top of her was Zed, all of them located between the wooden wall of their confined space and the Pidgeot. "Well… this is quite a predicament. It appears that we have been teleported yet again, though this time to a much more reduced space." Jake pointed out.

"Tell us something we don't know Jake!" Lucy screamed, angry with the ice type, since he wasn't helping their situation at all.

"Well… I don't know about you guys, but I really don't want to be stuck like this much longer… This feels really weird." Zed said, pretty embarrassed because of his current location. He was right in between her own mate's rear and Elly's, who was on top of his head. he couldn't look up, and even if he could he wouldn't, but right next to Elly was Eric, who was threatening to fall down through the gap in between Zed and Jake. He hadn't moved at all.

"Alright… we need to find a way out of here. Does anyone see anything at all? A door, an exit a window… Anything." He asked.

"Well.. there's a hole here, but… Yeah, I think it's big enough for all of us. What I don't know is how Emily is going to get out from underneath me… Oh by the way, are you ok?" He asked the Eevee underneath him.

"Yes, I'm just fine over here! I've got a pretty good view… Of the hole I mean!" She quickly finished, leaving that sentence hanging in the air for a while, Nox smiling as wide as he could. They had to find out a way of that place and figure out where they were. And they had to do that now. Nox however, realized something and looked at Emily. "Wait… what hole?" He asked.

 **And here we go! A whole new world of endless possibilities is awaiting! What could be waiting for the team outside of that… strange wooden prison they're now in? Find out next time…**

 **Nah, I'm not fond of those kinds of outros. Anyways, Eric and company will be introduced to a new cast of characters on the next chapter… so expect to see that soon! As always, thank you for reading, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 1 - The Kaiser Family

**Alright, so this chapter we're finally getting into the real crossover. Before we begin however, I want to let you guys know that some of the parts of this chapter have been written by Rayduran, so if you see a different writing style… well, that's the reason. I've done my best to make it as similar to mine as possible so that there aren't any confusions. Just a heads up.**

 **Anyways, enjoy!**

 **Chapter 1**

 **The Kaiser Family**

The group of pokemon inside of the shed tried to move around, the whole totem of creatures shaking because of the movements of the pokémon at the base, which made the higher ones look down.

"Oi! Watch what you're doing down there, or else we're going to fall down!" Eric warned them, but the movement continued. The source of the whole problem was Emily, who was trying her hardest to get out from underneath Nox, and since she was at the very bottom of the structure, she was also the closest one to the entrance. However, their thought process was interrupted as they heard a strange voice inside of their minds.

" _If you can hear me, do not move from where you are, please."_ The voice said.

The owner of the voice was an Espeon, who was in reality the pokémon that had teleported them to that shed, which was in reality where they kept all the games and toys. His voice sounded stern, but calm, and the team was surprised to hear his voice at first, all of them moving around, trying to find the source of the voice. These sudden movements however, where the last that were needed to make the tower fall. Elly fell through the gap between Zed and Jake and landed on Serge's side, to then slide off and hit the ground when Serge moved his wing so that he wouldn't feel as uncomfortable as before. The Eevee hit the bottom, letting out a growl of pain, whilst Emily, who thanks to all of that movement, managed to get out from underneath all of them, but found herself on the opposite side of the exit.

" _Alright, but don't take too long, I'm starting to feel claustrophobic!"_ Elly responded. Just then, Nox tried to move around, but didn't notice Elly's paw and stomped on it, making the female pokémon howl out in pain. " _Nox, what the hell are you doing?!"_ She screamed, the fire type instantly backing away.

"Sorry, I didn't want to hurt you." He apologized, feeling guilty for hitting her, but also skeptical, since he doubted he'd stomped on her paw that hard to warrant that kind of response.

" _You better do! You almost broke my Arceus damned paw!"_ The Eevee shouted. The Espeon came out to the house's courtyard, where the toy shed was, and where he had teleported all of the pokémon that had showed up all of a sudden in the middle of the news broadcast. The shed wasn't really that big either, a meter and seventy centimeters of height and one meter wide in the shape of a square with a triangle shaped rooftop didn't leave too much space. The only window in the shed was closed, and although there was a wide enough entrance for pokemon and humans to come in and out easily, although most of the time crouching, if they had all gotten bunched up it would be hard to move around, especially with everything that was inside the house, such as the wardrobe where the toys were kept, the bedframe pushed right against the wall. It wasn't the first time that he had teleported something to him through live television, even with the delay, but it had been the first time he had done it with pokémon, and so many too. He calmly stepped towards the house and stopped halfway there, preferring to keep his distance and give them space… just in case.

" _You may have noticed that the shed does not have a door, but you have that exit and I am standing just outside."_ The Espeon informed them. " _Teleporting so many pokémon at the same time gives me a headache, so can you come out one by one or do you need help getting out of there?"_ He inquired, looking into the shed from far away, catching glances of a strange mess of fur of different colors, feathers, legs and wings, which to be honest he found slightly amusing.

The sound of pokémon and growling that came out of the shed ceased when Elly screamed out for them to stop moving so much. Emily began working her way around the totem, stepping on Elly's head and jumping off of her's to Nox' back, where she got stuck against the wall. She struggled to get out, but when she did she was launched forwards and through the exit, rolling around the ground and stopping on her back. Out of the corner of her eye she saw an Espeon, which looked radically different from any he had ever seen. He was mostly like the average Espeon: lilac coloured fur, tail ended in two separated tips, well built figure, however, his face had a more noticeable muzzle growing out of it, instead of the normal round, almost spherical shape, at the sides he has the accustomed tufts of fur, his eyes were light yellow and his gem, instead of red, was blue like a sapphire.

The Eevee smiled at him. "Hiya! My name is Emily, but my friends call me Em! Do you want to be my friend?" The Eevee asked him, her face beaming with excitement. Before the Espeon could say anything, however, more shouting was heard. Inside of the shed, the totem shook violently, Lucy toppling backwards and falling to the ground, then rolling out into the open.

She rubbed the back of her head, which hurt quite a lot. "Go to hell!" She shouted out loud, clearly angered with how she had to be the one to receive that blow. She then sat up and looked around, her emerald eyes landing on the Espeon's, who in response stared back.

"Watch out, incoming!" Nox shouted as he managed to get out from underneath the totem and rushed outside before he was shouted at by anyone, stopping right next to Emily and smiling at her. - Oh hey… Regarding all that happened in there… when and where?" He asked, a wide grin on his face, not paying attention to the psychic type pokemon.

Jake calmed down and realized he wouldn't have too many difficulties getting out of the shed now that both Lucy and Zed had left, the Zorua sneaking out along Lucy without anyone else noticing. The Sneasel jumped down and heard Nox's words as he stepped out. "You can not stop hitting on females even when we are in a completely unknown location Nox… Simply amazing. You can not be serious." His calm and almost monotonous voice echoed. "I plead you to let me and Elly do some psychological tests on you Nox. We must locate the source of your libido and neutralize it. For the sake of the world." He said, earning a groan from Nox.

Jake paced around, taking in all of his surroundings until he noticed the Espeon's presence, bowing. "Oh, I am sorry mister, I had not seen you until this very instant. My name is Jake, Jake the Sneasel." He presented himself whilst he performed the aforementioned reverence.

"You don't have to apologize." The Espeon said, smiling. However, inside of his mind he was crossing out the names of the pokémon and their species. So far, they were fitting perfectly. "I can't really blame you for not seeing me right off the bat, specially after that teleport." He finished, his voice relaxed as he waited for all of those that still had to get out.

Pokémon stopped coming out of the shed, and the electric feline sighed. "Alright, hold on a second… Zed! Get out here already, there's nothing to be worried about!" She shouted, although there was no response.

"Lucy… I came out of the shed with you." Zed said all of a sudden from behind everyone. The Zorua had sneaked past all of them without anyone noticing, and now he was there behind them. His voice scared everyone but the Shinx, who was used to him sneaking around all the time. He could somehow sneak past everyone whenever he wanted, even if he was completely visible at all times. If he didn't want you to see him, then you wouldn't see him. Not even the Espeon had seen him, his head snapping to look at the source of his voice, to then turn his attention to the shed again, not saying anything.

"I'm sorry hun… I didn't notice." Lucy said, nuzzling the Zorua, trying to apologize for shouting at him. Zed smiled and returned the affection with a nuzzle.

"Didn't take you too long didn't it?" Eric said as he came out of the shed, shaking the dust off of his arms. The Espeon's eyes glanced over to him, but more specifically to the marks and emblems on his right arm and the long blue scarf that waved in the air, reaching down to the back of his knees. "I'm glad to see that even though we're in a completely new place Nox is still harassing any females he sees and you two are just as sappy as always." He said with a huge grin on his face.

Jake sighed as Eric said this. "I just said that…" The ice type murmured

Lucy groaned and stopped nuzzling Zed to look at the Riolu. "Hardy har har. Look who's talking! You and Elly are clingier than us!" She responded, the Riolu raising his arms above his head as if he was being mugged.

"What did you just say about me?" Elly asked as she came out of the shed, her sky blue eyes looking straight into the Espeon's yellow eyes once his presence became obvious to her. The Eevee stood completely still, thoughts and emotions racing through her mind. The shape was nowhere close to her's, and the eyes were a painful reminder of just how different this psychic type was, but she was glad that there were no more similarities other than the species. All of the thinking was interrupted however, when the sound of something hitting wood echoed from behind them.

"Ah, shit!" Serge shouted as he bumped his head against the top frame of the entrance, falling to the floor and sitting down, rubbing his head with his wings whilst he groaned in pain, whispering profanities constantly.

"I should've considered picking another place… everything alright?" The Espeon asked, biting his tongue. The Pidgeot took some time to recover, and once he did, he began walking around groggily, swaying from one side to the other.

Nox smiled when he saw this. "I think he became even dumber!" He said, laughing out loud. Serge gave him a glance of annoyance and anger, mumbling something else before crouching down and exited the shed without any further problems.

"Are you absolutely sure you're ok?" The Espeon asked again.

"Eh? Eh yeah yeah, I'm ok. Thanks for asking though. Name's Serge, by the way." The flying type presented himself. "Serge the Pid-" He was cut short by the Espeon.

"I don't mean to be disrespectful Serge, but.. I think I've got a clue as to whom I've got in front of me. The problem is that… Simply… I just don't believe it." He said. He chuckled and mumbled. "Heh… first we get two humans from a world without pokémon, and now we get eight pokémon for a world without humans... It's a kind of funny." He mumbled to himself with a smile. After this, he turned his attention to the bigger Eevee, whose blue eyes were fixated upon his form again. "Do I have to ask?" He asked.

"Well… I don't know… If you know all of us here that is." She said, glancing at the Espeon, not really sure of what he had meant about knowing who they were. "But anyways… You're an Espeon with really powerful psychic powers. What's your name?" She asked him, forcing a smile on her face.

"Oh, apologies. I got caught up in this whole event I forgot to present myself…." He shook his head and chuckled at his forgiveness. "My name is Hadrim Espeon Kaiser." He did a small bow, then looked at Serge. "And, once again, I am sorry for interrupting you." He said, Serge shaking his wing, signaling that it wasn't that much of a big deal.

Just then, a familiar smell for the Espeon reached his nostrils, his nose twitching as he recognized the smell, smiling.

"Daddy!" The voice of an Eevee came from behind Hadrim, the Espeon preparing himself as a shiny Eevee jumped on his back, giggling madly. The voice was clearly feminine, so the Eevee was a female, Her silver fur had a darker tone than average, except on the mane of her neck and the tip of her tail which were the purest of whites one could see; her eyes were silverish in colour and by the size and her words, she was clearly still a young kit, nothing more out of the ordinary her appearance being finished by a sky blue bow with a white stone in the center, almost resembling the moon, on the base of her right ear.

"Hey Shade. Did you have a good time?" Hadrim asked the younger normal type, sitting down to make her slide off of his back with ease.

"Yep! We went to a ton of places! We went to... " She trailed off a she began mentioning different places, amongst the which were several clothing shops for both pokémon and humans, and more than one park. Shade was jumping around all the time, and didn't really notice the newcomers until she stopped talking.

"Shade, behave, we have guests." Hadrim said, motioning to the large group in front of them with his head. "Why don't you present yourself?" He suggested, the Eevee looking at the group, her face beaming, giving them a huge smile with her small fangs as she was excited to meet new pokémon.

"Hi! My name is Shade S. Eevee Kaiser! The "S" stands for shiny! Pleasure to meet you!" She greeted them with overwhelming excitement.

"Hello Shade, my name is Eric. And these are… - He pointed to the rest of his companions, giving them the cue to present themselves.

"My name is Elly. Pleasure's all mine!" The bigger Eevee followed her mate.

"I… Uh… I am Zed… Pleasure." The dark type said, stuttering because of his shyness.

"I am Lucy, the fastest pokemon alive!" The Shinx exclaimed, trying to convince the small naïve Eevee that she truly was the fastest pokemon alive.

Shade giggled. "You're funny, but I assure you you're not faster than Ren." Shade reassured her, lightly wounding the Shinx's pride, who looked at her with her mouth wide open, about to ask who this Ren was, and where she could find him or her.

"Hey, that's my job Lucy! I'm supposed to be the one who boasts all the time! By the way, my name is Nox. Tell me… Do you have a boyfriend?" He asked, giving the Eevee a really weird look. Nox received a massive blow to the back of his head in response, bashing his head on the ground.

"Watch what you say Houndour. She is ten years old." Hadrim hissed, his voice stern and serious, his tail shaking whilst the tips twisted around. Nox groaned and mumbled something as he got up, shaking his head whilst having to endure hearing the laughter of his friends.

"I think you and Hadrim are going to get along just fine." Eric joked, making Nox groaned again.

"My name… Is Jake. Jake the Sneasel, at your service, miss Shade." The ice type bowed once again.

"Name's Serge, and I live and breathe to write and fly!" The Pidgeot posed heroically as he said this, a wing on his chest.

"And my name is Emily! So you're ten years old! That's funny, I'm only thirteen! We're almost the same age! Do you want to be friends?" The small Eevee chirped, really excited. Eric looked at her smiled, rolling his eyes, then coughed as he cleared his throat.

"Alright well… All of us together, with the exception of Emily, are members of a famous Exploration Team known world wide. We are… Team Star, as we're known from where we come from." Eric explained, not really sure if he wanted to say that they came from a whole different world, instead opting to say that they came from really far away.

"Wow, that's funny!" Shade said, giggling, the name of the team ringing a few bells. Everyone looked at her, confused. "Great name!" She added, nobody really sure if she was saying it for real or if she was being ironic.

"Nox… Was it?" Another voice asked. Everyone looked behind Hadrim to see another Eevee, this one with brown fur with cream, almost yellow mane and tail tip, his eyes where chestnut brown, he had a kerchief around his neck, striped with green and dark blue lines and was a little taller than his shiny sister; appearing from the house. "Name's Radius Eevee Kaiser." He quickly said, turning his attention to the fire type. "And Nox… I'd seriously watch your mouth if you want to hit on another Eevee that lives with us, specially if her brother is there with her."

Meanwhile, inside of the house a Zoroark carrying bags of groceries looked out the window as he walked into the kitchen, becoming distracted and stubbing his toe on one of the legs of the table, howling out in pain and slamming the bags on the aforementioned table and grabbing his foot, jumping around and holding in screams and swears.

Nox huffed. "Alright alright, jeez. Anyways… can we make the one million poke question now?" Nox said.

"What's on your mind?" Hadrim asked, turning to look at them.

"Where are we?" He inquired, a nervous smile appearing on Hadrim's face.

"That's a hard one, especially if we take into consideration that you're not in your world anymore…" The Espeon's ears lowering because of how nervous he was. "But if you still want to know, this is the Kaiser Household, in Linde Town, Kirol Island, in the Narel Islands Region." The Espeon informed them.

"Wait… How do you know that we came from another world?" Eric asked, now slightly alarmed. "Did you read our minds or something like that?" The Riolu followed.

"No." Hadrim firmly stated. "I don't read minds without permission, Eric. It was simply a hutch, which you just confirmed by the way. Also, I haven't heard of a team with your name, and you say that you're known all around the world. So you're either from another world or you boast more than your Houndour friend over there." Hadrim said, pointing at the Houndour with his tail, laughing lightly.

"Oi!" Nox complained, looking at the Espeon, a little angry.

"You can' deny it dude. You'd be hitting on rocks if you could." Serge joked, making everyone laugh.

"Well… anyways, it appears that we are in another world, yes. Again." He said, reminding everyone of their previous interdimensional trip. "Although… I have to say this world looks hell of a lot nicer than the other one already." Eric pointed out.

"Most certain. I deduce, based on our environment and our temporary patrons, that this world does not differ much from ours, at least at first sight that is. I still need to confirm my theories and suspicions… Are there any libraries in the vicinity where I can corroborate my suspicions, mister Hadrim?" Jake asked in a very formal tone of voice.

"Hey now, relax. You can call me Hadrim, not mister. You make me feel old and I'm only twenty-seven." Hadrim laughed. "You don't have to be so formal. And regarding your question… there's a library in town… and I think we've got some history books at home." He added later.

"My most sincere apologies if I offended you Hadrim. If you do not want me to speak so formally, I will speak in a more casual manner like I am right now. Does this please you?" Jake asked, doubtful on how Hadrim wanted him to talk.

"Hey Had! Are those new guests?" A voice called from the top floor of the house before the Espeon could respond to Jake's doubts.

" _Probably so, Ichiro."_ Hadrim responded sending a message to everyone in courtyard and the human, who leaned out of his room from the window and smiled at the pokémon down there, waving at them with a hand. The human's skin was slightly tanned, his hair was silver colored and he was wearing something dark green over his chest, his eye colour was amiss from that distance for the pokémon but they were of deep red, like rubies.

"Welcome then, you're at your own home!" The human greeted them, to then return inside.

"That's Ichiro." Shade said, smiling. "He's the biggest cub out of all of us." She added.

"And you could consider him to be our big brother." Radius commented after his sister. However, everyone was still shocked.

"Cub?! That's a human!" Elly screamed, once again surprised at this turn of events.

"Yeah. what's with it?" Shade asked, her smile disappearing and leaning her head in confusion.

"There aren't humans in your world?" Radius asked.

"I think Elly's face is a dead giveaway... So you should deduce the answer to that question quite easily, right?" Eric pointed out. To be honest, he was also surprised to see humans in that world, but most of the shock had vanished just a few minutes ago, when they had been surrounded by a lot of humans at the same time. He also hoped that they were nothing like the only human they had met in the past… but he was pretty sure that _he_ was an exception, rather than the norm. He told them exactly that, but the Eevee siblings just shrugged.

"Well.. I hope the surprise factor disappears after a while…" Rad said with a smile. However, Nox was still geeking out about Ichiro.

"OH ARCEUS A HUMAN! A HUMAN! Tell me, how many monsters has he killed?! What powers does he have?!" Nox began asking questions non-stop, making everyone dizzy.

"Nox… Nox please stop, you're making my head hurt." He said, sighing. "Teleporting you guys here plus all of the translating you're making me do is making my head spin. Normally humans do not understand poke speech, and need a pokémon to translate for them, be it by aura link or telepathy, or buy a translator, but those are worth way too much poke for us to even consider that… Also, although it is possible for there to be humans with special capabilities, it is rather strange, and those who do have them are often considered as monsters by other humans." Hadrim explained, Nox becoming disheartened.

"Or other living creatures in _his_ case…" Eric mumbled, low enough so that only Elly heard her.

"But… I thought…" Nox was about to complain, but a stern look from the rest of his friends told him that it was best to just drop the argument. "Fine… forget I ever said anything…" He bitterly answered, frustrated and angered.

Whilst this was happening, the Zoroark had recovered from stubbing his toe and helped a woman and a Lucario put all they had bought in it's proper place. Whilst this was happening, through Ichiro's window, an Eevee was leaning out the window and looking at the pokemon at the courtyard. She didn't feel like going down there, especially considering what day it was. Her brother was lucky enough that he had found something to do so he could keep his mind off the issue. However… she hadn't been able to get it out of her own, and wasn't even slightly curious to figure out who those pokémon were.

Hadrim looked up and saw the Eevee, who quickly retreated back inside and out of sight. He sighed. " _Can I ask you something?"_ He used telepathy to leave out someone from their group.

" _Of course."_ Eric responded. His quick response surprised Hadrim, the Espeon just then realizing that the Riolu was used to psychic conversations. He didn't ask how and why however, since he guessed it just wasn't the best time for those types of questions.

" _There are two more pokémon living with us, you'll meet them later, they're Natalie and Dark. They're siblings, so they'll tell you their story whenever they feel like it… Alright, the thing is… If Nox is like this with all the females, please keep him from saying anything when he meets Natalie. Normally, nothing would happen because of those types of comments, but today they are… really depressed for some reason they don't want to tell us and… well, let's just say things could become really tense."_ He told them through telepathy. The Espeon then said out loud that they would meet Dark and Natalie soon, and that if they were rude they didn't hold it against them for too long, seeing as they were having a bad day.

"Well… you heard Radius Nox!" Serge chirped, looking at the fire type. "Can you survive without harassing all the females you run into for a couple of days?" The Pidgeot asked, a huge grin on his face. Nox responded with a huff and giving the flying type a look that said "Wipe that big shit eating grin off your face, you bastard!".

"Alright, I'll try my hardest..." He looked at Emily, licking his lips and smiling. "Heh… She's only two years younger than me. She's ok, right? It's not creepy or anything…" He asked the feathery pokémon, who merely shrugged in response. "Bah! It doesn't matter… I'm going to focus all my advances on trying to seduce her!" He exclaimed, running up towards where Emily was and started talking with her. Serge chuckled as he saw this.

"This kid's got some guts… at this rate, the pupil will surpass the master!" He began laughing as he joined the group again.

"Well, if you come with me, we'll go inside and meet the rest." Hadrim said with a smile on his face, turning around and heading back inside to the house, Radius and Shade smiling to their guests before following their father back into the house.

"With pleasure!" Elly responded to Hadrim's offer, everyone moving behind the family of eeveelutions. Elly walked up to her mate. "You know… They seem like really nice people." The Eevee whispered. The Riolu answered with a nod, but kept a serious look on his face.

"True, but we still don't know what their true intentions are. Keep your eyes open Elly, because our arrival to this world couldn't have been any bumpier." The Riolu reminded her. He was really worried, but he didn't let it show. However, Elly knew him very well, and she could tell that he was tense, although she opted to not say anything, as she could guess what the origin of his worries were. And if was the way she thought, it probably didn't have anything to do with neither the Kaiser family nor with their hospitality.

Lucy dashed ahead and looked into the kitchen, her eyes widening like plates. The room was big, there was a small table near a window with four chairs around it, a large counter placed on top of stands at floor level covering two walls of the room, in between two doors, one was open and the Shinx could see another room from there, while the other was closed. Aside from that she could see even more stands on top of the lower ones, on the side she could see something made of metal curving forwards over something she could not see **,** and on the opposite side she could see a big cauldron on top of a black electric oven. The stands seemed to be made of pine wood while the counter was white marble. And to finish she could see two big wood doors right besides the counter and the open door, which were bigger, a faint buzzing noise coming from it.

"Woooooow! Zed come check this out!" She called for the Zorua, who walked into the kitchen shortly after and walking around, his jaw dropping to the floor. "It's huge! I wish we had one like this back at home, you'd probably have a blast whilst cooking!" The Shinx read the dark-type's mind, knowing him to well. Everything was so new and mysterious, the black fox felt as if he was having an adventure and wandering into parts where no one had ever wandered into before. He could see lights, metallic contraptions and all sorts of gizmos that he had no idea how they worked.

"Hey, thanks!" A female's voice echoed from the kitchen's entrance. Over there they saw a Lucario leaning on the doorframe whilst she observed as the two curious pokémon look around. She wasn't that different from the other Lucario they knew, although her blue fur was a lighter tone, the cream colored fur had a more blueish shine and the black fur was deeper on it and her eyes were an icy blue colour. "It's hard to keep it clean, specially when I get really inspired to cook." She then looked at the Zorua. "If you like cooking, then you may want to consider exchanging recipes? By the way, my name is Luca Lucario Kaiser." She said with a motherly smile on her face.

"Eeeeh…. Sure we can do that… later, but… Where's the fire? And the oven?" Zed asked, confused as he found those strange metallic artifacts instead of those essential kitchen parts. Luca smiled as he said this.

"I'll show you. Here, come over and climb onto the countertop." She said, the Lucario approaching the cooktop. "It's a little different than what you're used to, since you just asked me for the fire." She said whilst she waited for the Zorua to come closer so she showed him the kitchen. However, the Zorua stood where he was, shaking. He wasn't sure on how all of that worked and… he was honestly scared. He closed his eyes and turned around and ran out to the courtyard again, leaving a dumbfounded Shinx and Lucario in the kitchen. Lucy got visibly angry, heading after him.

"Zed! Get back here this instant! You don't do that, it's rude!" She screamed, really angry. Meanwhile, Luca chuckled and waited patiently for the shy Zorua, leaning against the countertop near the cooktop. Lucy came back moments later, pushing the shy black fox, who was looking at the ground, really ashamed. He wasn't used to getting this much attention, especially from people he didn't know. He just couldn't handle it well. He finally took the initiative and approached.

"My uh…. My name is Zed. Nice to meet you, miss…" The poor thing couldn't stop shaking and stuttering, and he was fully aware that he was making a bad first impression, or at least he thought so.

"Pleasure's all mine Zed. And don't worry, you don't have to be so formal. Anyways,,,, are you going to jump up?" She asked, looking at the cooktop but still waiting. Zed nodded and started climbing, first jumping onto a chair, then onto the table and from there to the countertop. However, as he jumped he landed on the very edge of the kitchen sink, and because it was wet, he howled out as he slipped inside and fell in the water, popping back out almost immediately, shaking like a leaf. He ended up getting soaked in the water where Luca had been cleaning all the vegetables for lunch. Lucy began giggling, holding in her laughter, whilst Luca's ears lowered and bit down on her tongue, finding the whole situation… awkward. More for the poor Zorua that just got an unexpected bath in front of a stranger. The Lucario knew that if she approached she would probably make things worse, but Lucy would probably be able to help him dry up. The fighting type didn't say anything though, fearing that if she said anything Zed would just run away again, red as a tomato.

"He he he… You're so clumsy Zed." The Shinx said, approaching the chair and climbing up herself whilst Zed eyed her.

"Don't say those things Lucy… Sorry about the vegetables Luca, but I didn't know there was… a bucket there?" He asked, not really sure of how to describe what he had just fallen into.

"It's ok. Besides, it's not the veggies I'm worried about. It was kinda my fault too, since I didn't notice were you were going to land early enough to warn you before time." She said, blushing a bit herself to then approach and grab a towel from the cupboard near the sink and handed it over to them. "Here, dry up." She left the towel right next to them, then turned around to give them some space whilst grabbing the cooking pot, pushing it closer to the cooktop. Zed appreciated the Lucario's gesture, crouching down and slipping under the towel, so when he stood up he was completely enveloped by it, head and all. Lucy saw him and smiled once again whilst the duo were still sitting on the kitchen top. She moved the towel from covering his ears and eyes and began helping him dry.

"You know… I thought you were old enough to know how to dry yourself all alone…" She whispered into his ear, blowing into it, making him shiver. He looked at her, blushing madly, the Shinx chuckling. A few minutes later Zed was completely dried up, but… his hairstyle looked radically different. He was now something more akin to a ball of black pointy fur than a fox. "Well… We'll fix it later, but until then, just tell everyone I zapped you." She said,

"But… you haven't even…" Before he could finish however, the Shinx got really close to him, both her fur and the Zorua's cracking as electricity coursed from her to him, making the Zorua yelp in surprise, his fur becoming even more straight. Lucy smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek in compensation.

Once all this was over, Luca looked at the cooktop again and rose a paw, lowering it on top of a drawing that was made out of a circle missing a small section, which instead had a vertical line that went through it, the drawing being white coloured, to contrast with the black material of the cooktop. A beep was heard, and four lights started blinking alongside more drawings that appeared around the edges. "In contrast to kitchens that use fire to cook, this one uses electricity to create heat. You have to turn it one though." She said, pointing at the button she had just pressed. "You don't have to be afraid, but don't hold your paw on it. You just have to tap it." The Lucario said, pushing the drawing again and turning it off. "The four lights you saw tell you that it's turned on, and they correspond to each of the rings." She said, pointing at the four rings spread out across the surface, the top two being bigger than the lower ones. "I know you're not this dense, you learn by doing." She said, encouraging the Zorua to turn it on by himself.

Zed approached the machine, a little fearful, and lightly tapped the symbol Luca had told him to. The cooktop made another sound, and the Zorua backed off because of instinct, but once he saw that everything worked the way the Lucario had described to him, a wide smile appeared on his face, really happy that he was finally learning how this whole process went. He showed this grin to Luca and Lucy.

"You know what? You're going to help me make lunch." The Lucario decided. "That way, I can teach you everything and you can practice at the same time." She proposed, Zed nodding enthusiastically.

Lucy got down from the kitchen top. "Well… I'll stick around then and chat with you guys while you cook." The electric type said as she descended from the countertop and got on a chair, sitting on it and watching how her mate and the Lucario cooked a meal.

Meanwhile, in the living room things had finally returned to their normal state. At that very moment they were showing a documentary about the attack on the pokéball factory from last night. "As you can see…" The reporter began." The door is in a perfect state, but the lock has been cut in half cleanly. The smoothness of the cut has made the police believe that the culprit may have had a psychic pokemon with them or may be a psychic pokemon themselves. Inside of the factory not much was found…" The reporter trailed off whilst the camera zoomed in on the lock. Needless to say, it was cut in half, like she said.

A man was sitting on the couch, watching the television whilst Hadrim entered the room, using his psychic powers to pick up the book he had left on the couch moments ago to then pick it up with his tail whilst he explained to the newcomers what that room was. It was a big room, since it was both the living and dining room. The dining area was just a big table with fifteen chairs around it and space enough to add another two if needed, the table and chairs being of oak wood, polished and varnished to the point of giving it a nice view as both a decoration and a useful piece of furniture. The chairs had a cushion each since it was all wooden but they had added the cushion for comfort, tying it to the backs of the chair which consisted of an arc with three branches coming from the base of the back, up to the arc. the cushion being furnished with a white cover so it was easier to clean. Over the table was a huge ceiling lamp with a design that consisted of eight ramifications in which tips where the light bulbs for dinner or days with low light from the outside. The other part of the room, the living room, which consisted of a three person couch in the middle over a red furry carpet of fake purple fur and two armchairs on both sides of the couch, all pointing towards the wall where a fifty inch television was hanging from the wall, with the Twenty-four Hours News Channel on display at that very moment. Around the tv was a big, open cabinet. A piece of furniture that consisted of various shelves, the central one being the television cabinet with two doors to cover the thing. Around that, where other shelves with some family photos and others with some glass figures, that on the upper ones, the lower ones had two closed doors that hid what was inside since it wasn't being used. The big piece of furniture was carved out of darkwood, and the doors where white to make a contrast with the rest of the piece. Illuminating the whole living room, if it was time to have the lights on, were four lights inside the ceiling, the lights being little bulbs with enough intensity between the four to illuminate the whole room, the switch for these turning out to be something akin to a wheel that regulated the intensity of the lights, rather than an "off" and "on" switch. The walls of the entire room were decorated with various paintings mixed in with family photos of the whole Kaiser family, which consisted of three humans and five pokémon, which showed up in most of the photos. Some photos were also close-ups of certain members of the family, which only showed their faces, and there were even couple photos. One of the later that stood out was one which featured Luca and Hadrim. In this one the Lucario had picked up the Espeon bridal style while he was holding a berry branch of Leppa berries, her favorites. This one made the Espeon blush intensely when he saw it, and hoped for none of the new guests to even glance at that one; and others had three pokemon on it, the three being cubs, while others had these three pokémon and one human cub and others only the human cub.

"That's Daniel Kaiser." Hadrim said, moving his head towards the human looking at the strange apparatus that was showing images. He smiled as he noticed that the human wasn't paying any attention to what was going on behind him. "It seems that he won't pay attention to anyone else right now, he's way too focused on watching the news right now." He commented.

"You don't say." A voice said. From the other side of the couch a Vulpix rose, approaching the group. "Hi, my name's Luna Vulpix." She said. She was a Vulpix of relatively small size, her fur was orange, but the tone was similar to that of copper, with her underbelly being white, and her six curly tails, the curl on her forehead and the fur around her paws was slightly golden, her eyes a deep vibrant crimson, reminiscent of the color of rubies.

Eric, Elly, Jake, Serge, Emily and Nox were accompanying Hadrim, all of them telling the Vulpix their names. Nox took a step forward, everyone rolling their eyes and sighing, with the exception of Serge, who wanted to see what the fire type would do.

"Hey there, good looking… You and I have something in common, you know? We're both fire types… so why don't we let our burning passion take over for the night?" He asked, giving her the best handsome smile he could do. Luna just stood still, glancing at Nox, making it look as if she was interested by what she saw.

"Well… you're certainly good looking…" She said with a smile, inching towards him, her voice getting a bit more sensual. "And that eye colour is certainly rare on a fire type…" She added, inching ever so closer to the Houndour until their heads were at the same level. A huge grin manifested itself on Nox's face, the Houndour really excited to see what would happen next, though he was getting ahead of himself, curving his lips and closing his eyes, expecting a kiss from the fire type in front of him…

"But no matter how handsome you are, I do not intend on throwing myself at your feet at first sight!" She exclaimed, her smile disappearing. When Nox opened his eyes he saw a paw flying towards his face, hitting him square on the left cheek and making him spin like a spinning top. "And that's for treating me like a slut!" She shouted, clearly angry. When this happened, Hadrim's jaw dropped to the floor. He didn't have anything to say, and if he did, he would most likely not open his mouth, but it was the first time he had seen Luna act that way.

Serge saw how the whole scene transpired, everyone wincing and cringing as Nox received the biggest slap of his life, and once he stopped spinning, dropping to the floor about to puke, the Pidgeot roared with laughter. "OOOooooh! You just got REJECTED!" He cheered, his comment making the other laugh, with the exception of Nox, who was rubbing his left cheek, trying to recover from not only the blow to his face, but also the blow to his pride. He faced Luna and smiled.

"You just wait… You'll see how you will end up knowing every single part of The Great Nox!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, Eric taking a step forward and holding the fire type's muzzle shut with a paw.

"Sorry for that. Nox can be a little… well… peculiar." The Riolu apologized, giving Nox a look that basically said "Shut the hell up before you fuck up again.". Eric was really expressive with his looks, and Nox caught the message instantly.

"Hey, it's ok. I've seen worse, really. There are some pokémon out there that will go to the extent of licking themselves just so they can pin down a female in heat." She said all of a sudden. Everyone, aside from three pokemon in the room, looked at her with eyes wide as plates.

"What was the heck what was the what the what?" Radius asked, REALLY confused as he didn't get a single world Luna just said.

"Luna, control yourself please." Hadrim told her when he heard his own cub asking about that.

"Whooops!" She gave them a sheepish smile. "I didn't say anything… Oh, by the way… Hadrim, have you seen Dark? He dropped his medicine and hasn't noticed yet." She said, grabbing a small black pill bottle and showing it to the Espeon.

"I think he's in the garage right now. If he doesn't respond when you call go up and leave it in his room." He told her. The Vulpix answered with a nod, turning around and heading towards the kitchen, where the garage door was. After that, Hadrim guided the group through the house and took them to the main hallway, telling them what it was and informing them that later he would show them a room where they could hang out and relax, then continued further down the hallway and stopped in front of two doors. He told them that the room to the left was the bathroom. He then pointed at the door to the right.

"This is my room and my mate's, so please wait here." He said, then looked at Jake. "Not you Jake. Come with me for a second." He said, the Sneasel walking in after him. Once inside, Hadrim turned on the lights pressing a switch on the floor, right next to the door, and walked over to a bookshelf, which was located at the other side of the room, directly in front of the entrance. Jake saw various books with different types of covers, from plain covers without anything on them to more intricate designs. He caught sight of a certain book which was made out of black velvet, with golden letters that Jake couldn't understand. Hadrim placed the book he was carrying in it's proper spot and looked for one of the many history books that they had from the time when Ichiro went to elementary school and had to do some assignments that required extra books. Some of the titles had different letters altogether, which differentiated the books written in human language and the books written in poke speech.

"Can you understand any of the titles" Hadrim asked the Sneasel as he handed him title after title written in human language, which meant that the ice type didn't understand anything. Whilst he waited for Jake to finish flipping through them, Hadrim grabbed a random enciclopedia and opened it at a random page, giving it to the Sneasel to try and understand too.

"Nothing. I am afraid I cannot understand any of these books. It seems like your tongue is much more different that ours, and I am unable to translate anything of what you've placed before me." Jake answered in a humble way, giving back all of the books. Before Jake could give the book to Hadrim however, Elly walked into the room and asked Jake to give her the book. Hadrim shrugged and Jake placed it on the floor so that Elly could read.

"Hmm… I've seen this writing before in really ancient books… It's human speech." She pointed out the obvious, Jake glaring at her. She looked up, annoyed. "Oh don't give me that look Jake, you know I love history! And besides, I don't understand much anyways." She said, pushing it towards them

"Well… if neither of you two can understand what it says, then I don't think we should try either." Eric said, crossing his arms behind his head, a huge smile on his face. Elly glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

"I'll find a way to keep you reading Eric, that I assure you." She told him, the Riolu sighing in exasperation.

"I may be able to help you with that if you want… The only problem is that… it's a little personal, but I could share with you my experience and knowledge of the human language. Memories, learning experiences. Practice even." The Espeon offered. However, everyone declined the offer.

"We don't want to bother you too much Hadrim. I think me and Jake can learn human if we really put our heads to it." Elly said, not really wanting to be anymore in debt with the Espeon.

"Well, it wouldn't have bothered me much anyways, Elly, but if you want a teacher anyways, Ichiro is pretty good at it. In fact, he is the one who taught all of us." Hadrim explained with a smile "And there's a couple of books too. They are numbered and that's the first one. I've also got books written in pokespeech, but they're mostly fantasy." Hadrim commented.

Eric fell to his knees as soon as Hadrim mentioned the novels. "Nooooooooooooo!" He shouted, much to Elly's irritation.

"Stop whining already! Try it out and you'll learn to love it in the end! The only thing you need is to find a book that grabs your attention." She said, really angry with Eric, since they were always having this kind of discussion.

"The only book that hooked me was the one with the mystery murders in the mansion and the detectives… and I don't know when but either you or Jake said something about "It's always the butler!" or something, and guess what? It turned out that the culprit was the butler!" The Riolu complained, both Elly and Jake biting down on their tongues.

"Alright, that's just wrong. You don't do that to someone who is reading a book, it just ruins the experience altogether." Hadrim scolded them. "But… I seriously doubt you'll know the story of any of these… let's see…" He looked at the bookshelf, eyeing the book with the black cover, but opted to pick up one that was two books to the right. "If you manage to convince him, he may like this one." He said, picking up the book and showing it to the Eevee. The title's letters were much more different than the previous ones, and she could actually read them this time around. Jake grabbed the book for her. "But enough talk. Let's go upstairs and show you the guest room so you can relax for a while before lunch." He said, smiling to then lead them to the stairs and then up.

He pointed them to their room whilst informing them to whom the other rooms belonged to, then opened the door of their room for them with his tail.

"Get comfy." He offered, letting them in. "Well, this is when I leave you alone. I haven't showed you the basement, but it's basically both another living room and can act as another guest room. I'll tell you whenever lunch is prepared." He said, leaving the the group inside of the room, then headed back all the way down to his room, where he fell on the bed. "Ow… my head hurts." He said, closing his eyes and burying his nuzzle underneath Luca's pillow. "Hmm… Wonder what you have on your mind about those vegetables for today…" He wondered to himself as he fell asleep.

Eric and the rest looked at the room. It wasn't big, and that going to be an issue. "Wait… We're all going to have to sleep together in the same room?!" Elly asked, alarmed by this fact Jake was the only one who nodded.

"I'm afraid so… And with that attitude, I'm afraid the next few days will be difficult, especially with Nox. He's a constant heat source, since he is a fire type pokemon." Jake pointed out, although he already wasn't too happy with the idea of having to share a room with everyone.

"Well… It's not really that much of a problem for me." Serge said, looking at the room from side to side. There wasn't really anything notable to honest. A wardrobe to the left of the entrance, a window with the curtains closed, a desk that didn't have anything on it and to the right of them he could see a bed with a mattress, and right next to it, he saw a chest where he guessed they kept things like sheets or pillows. But his attention was focused on the bed. "It cannot be.. it's a mattress!" Serge exclaimed all of a sudden, walking over to the piece of furniture, although more interested on what was on it.

"That's the bed?" Elly asked, the flying type answering with a nod. "That doesn't look like anything we have back home…" She said, approaching the bed, everyone following her example.

"That's because those are normal beds, but… These things are a luxury where we come from. I had only seen two of them during my travels, and only those who were filthy rich have them… this is the mattress, and the one's I had seen were made out of feathers or wool. I don't know what this one's made out of though…" He said as he laid on the bed, letting out a sigh of relief. "Ooooooh… Just as good as I remembered it!" The bird exclaimed, which sparked envy in the rest of his companions.

"Hey, I wanna try it too!" Nox shouted as he ran up to it and jumped on top, his landing making the whole bed shake, but feeling the softness almost immediately. "Wooowww… It's so fluffy and comfy! And it doesn't jab at you like straw! This must be what it feels to be sleeping in the clouds…" Nox said, turning around on his back, closing his eyes and relaxing, aiming to rest for a while.

"Well… technically that statement is incorrect, Nox. One can not lay on clouds, as they are not solid and you would fall straight to the ground, probably resulting in serious injuries to your body or…" Nox rose a paw and began spinning it around.

"Yeah yeah yeah… Just shut up and lay down will ya? Then you can judge." The Houndour invited Jake to lay down, the Sneasel placing a hand on the mattress, pushing down and making sure that it was comfy…

"Arceus… this is soft… I can feel as if my hand is sinking slowly…" He turned around and got on the bed, laying down and waiting for an instant."There is a high chance that these types of beds are beneficial for back problems… We should acquire beds like these immediately after coming back." He suggested, Eric and Elly considering it, as long as they got to try it out and the price wasn't too high. Meanwhile, Emily took her chance to leap onto the bed, giggling like a cub because of how comfy it was. Eric and Elly got close to the bed to try and fit, but Serge was sprawled on the mattress and took up more than half of the space

"Hey Serge, can you let us on?" Elly asked politely, but got no response from the bird. Eric stepped.

"Serge, let us lay down and try it out, come on." The Riolu repeated the same message. Serge knew that Eric would eventually force him to get up one way or the other, so decided to just sit up, leaning against the wall and give the two pokémon some space. They both laid down on the bed, right next to eachother.

"Wow… This is really comfy actually…" He said as he felt how he sank in little by little. Elly rubbed herself up against him, finally getting some rest after all that had happened earlier that day. The Eevee closed her eyes and placed her head right against the fighting type's chest. She listened to his heartbeat, which helped her relax whilst Eric wrapped his arm around her, laying on his side and hugging the Eevee, gently caressing the back of her head and her ears. After what had happened, everyone needed to relax a little, and if Elly wanted to take a nap, he didn't have any problem with it.

"Welp… Here we are people… In a completely different world and about to sleep in the house of some complete strangers…" He said, low enough so that he didn't disturb Elly as she tried to fall asleep.

"Well… they seem like nice people to me, I don't know… I think we can trust them." Nox said, expressing his opinion on the Kaiser family.

"It's not that I don't trust them, it's just that they've let us stay in their house without us even asking and I have no idea on how to repay them. To be honest, we needed someplace to stay and rest after what happened in that cave." Eric said, looking at Elly, knowing that if it wasn't for her they probably wouldn't have gotten there in one piece.

"Speaking of that… Does anyone know who that guy was? Bastard almost killed us without breaking a sweat." Serge reminded them, Jake nodding in agreement.

"True.. His abilities were much faster and powerful than ours, and he was extremely precise when it came to attacking. I have a couple of theories on him, although the one that makes the most sense to me is that he is an assassin that has been hired to kill us. If this is the case, what we should really be wondering is who hired him." He said, then began explaining all of his theories on the issue, mentioning virtually anyone who either wanted them dead or that could straight up try to kill them.

"Hey.. now that you mention it… What if it turns out that we've put some many criminals in jail that a super criminal organization wants to kill us so that we stop saving pokémon?!" Nox asked out loud, earning himself a long and soft "Hush" from Eric.

"You should try and write with all of that imagination, Nox." Serge joked, the Houndour glaring at him. Jake however, weighted the fire type's words.

"Well… now that you are mentioning it… the theory of the super criminal group does not sound too farfetched. After all, we're a team that's known all over the world. If we were able to destroy Team Uncario, then by pure logical deduction we should be able to defeat anything that is thrown our way. In other words… by defeating Uncario and getting them out of the picture, we may have attracted some unwanted attention… Similar to when Nox starts harassing a female. It's that bad." Jake said, smirking.

"Hey! That was uncalled for!" Nox exclaimed, Serge laughing lightly, convinced to do so by the murderous glare Eric sent his way. Emily giggled, the Houndour dropping the argument and relaxing alongside the other six pokémon, which were all somehow lying on bed. After a few minutes everyone closed their eyes to sleep, except for Emily, who after five minutes jumped down the bed, bored to death and prepared to head out of the room. However, just she was about to do so, she heard something, standing completely still, her ears standing straight.

She heard steps approaching and claws striking the floor. The sound became louder as someone walked up the stairs slowly, to then walk down the hallway. The steps got closer and closer, until it got to the point where they were at the other side of the door. There was a moment of silence until the sound of a nearby door opening. In the middle of the hallway there was a Zoroark, which looked rather sad, his fur dirty and covered in some kind of black liquid, which was hard to see because of the already black Zoroark's fur. He stopped right before going into his room, smelling the air. " _So they ended up staying, eh? Well… they're welcome, I guess."_ He thought to himself before going into the room and closing the door behind him, only to sit on the floor, leaning against the door. The Zoroark was tall but smaller than Serge by a head at least, his fur was dark grey on most of his body, the fur on his chest and upper back was pitch black, his eyes, as anyone with heterochromia, where two colored, one was a cyan blue while the other was cobalt blue, being very similar between each other but the difference still visible, he has a long mane, which reaches almost to the floor when he's standing, held in a ponytail by a garnet orange and solid hard scrunchie. The colour of the mane as well as some spots on his face, like the corners of his lips and his upper eyelids, were crimson red, as well as the fur at the tip of his digits and the inside of his ears. He had both his upper paws covered in bandages from the digits up to the middle of the forearms, a painful reminder for him of a certain event months back, but that he had chosen to keep, the bandages were torn and old but he kept them as clean as he could as to avoid them smelling. To finish, his mane had a lot of black spots and stripes adorning it.

"What a day, eh?" An Eevee asked once the Zoroark went inside. She had chestnut brown fur with cream mane and tail tip, she was very young as well, hence her smaller size compared to Radius or Shade, and other difference was the vibrant green of her eyes, remainder of the shine of emeralds bathing in the twilight.

"Helping Clara and Luca, new pokémon in the house, a little bit of manual work…" Dark numbered, nodding. "Yep, it was a good day." He said. The twins were acting weird to say the least, Natalie wasn't killing time with any books, she was just lying under the window of the room. On the other hand, Dark wasn't really in the mood to practice his illusions either.

"How many?" The dark typed asked soon. "Forty five?"

"Forty four." The Eevee responded, correcting the Zoroark's mistake. Once again, they fell silent. Natalie couldn't hold in her sobs any longer. She went into the room and went towards that, sticking to her brother, who picked her up in his arms and hugged her, their eyes teary. "I miss them so much…" She said between sobs.

"Me too…" He answered, his voice cracking as he tried to steel himself, but it was useless and ended up crying in silence with her, hugging her even more tightly against his chest. "Me too." He repeated, enveloping his sister in his grasp.

* * *

 **Some other place at the other side of the region…**

Silenced hung over the air of the forest. Not even breathing could be heard, which was an abnormality, since the forest was inhabited by pokémon and animals and many sorts. But everyone and everything had sensed something strange in the air, and the area had been abandoned shortly after, probably forever. Now it was deserted, without any signs of life other than the many trees that made up the forest itself, the sky darkening as clouds covered the sky. A storm was coming, but it wasn't a normal one. Drops of water fell from the clouds, the amount of energy in the air not only resulting in water pouring down from the sky, but also the appearance of lightning and thunder shortly after, the air around the area becoming stagnant, as if it was being robbed of vitality. In the midst of all that chaos, a strange and unnatural sound was heard, similar to the sound a sheet of paper made when it was ripped, but with such viscerality, and added to the strange factor of the whole situation, it would've made anyone's hairs to stand on edge, feeling as if the very fabric of space was tearing apart.

And that was exactly what was happening.

Purplish sparks filled the air, and a black tear appeared, suspended in midair, through the which a shape came out, falling to the ground. The hole closed, leaving the being in that forest, which was completely new to it. He rose up from it's knees slowly. It wasn't in a hurry. It's prey had managed to escape thanks to Palkia's intervention. But that wouldn't happen. After all, if it's suspicions were correct, it was in a different world altogether, so nobody, not even it's prey, knew it was there.

The shape looked at itself. It's body was completely covered and hidden from view by a black tunic with a hood, covering it's facial features, it's hands and it's feet, and whatever parts showed were a deep onyx black, impossible to discern whether they were claws, fingers or paws. "Excellent… The magic is still working." It told itself, looking around it, unfazed by the storm around it. It didn't know where they were, but it would find them eventually. And when it did, it would finish the job. It's shape vanished into a black blue in just an instant, and then disappeared. The hunt was on.

* * *

She had felt something. She was alert. What she felt wasn't normal… unless something big went through. But someone else had felt it. The huge shape of Palkia came out of a white portal, going into the very fabric of space. Floating in this place, the legendary pokémon for the source of that feeling, but found more than what she bargained for. A hooded figure had arrived, and was observing a tear in the delicate fabric. "Who are you and how did you access this plain?!" Lisa roared, approaching the shape at higher speeds, who only turned around to glance at her. The view of it's face was obstructed, but she could see the end of it's muzzle poking from underneath the hood, the pokémon freezing on the spot.

"You… how are you still alive?" She asked.

"My… presence, is the least of our concerns at this very moment." The shape said, stopping to try and find an appropriate word to describe the situation. "This wasn't caused from the inside." It said, turning to face the tear again.

"How do you know that?" The space dragoness asked. As response, the being took a breath and exhaled what seemed to be fiery breath just in front of the tear in the fabric of space, around ten auras reacting in front of the perturbation and appearing before Palkia's eyes.

"Someone… or something, has sent beings from another space to ours." He said. "Someone with your same powers." It added as it watched the tear with curiosity, trying to see the other side. It may be a mysterious and enigmatic creature, but he was also guilty of succumbing to the mortal quality of curiosity. But still… "I don't like this one bit…" It muttered.

"This is not good. We must close the tear." Palkia said. "There's not many reasons for someone to be able to travel to our world, and only one of them doesn't involve a risk of death." She added.

"I understand, but we can't close this for the time being. Whatever has come from there is tearing apart everything, that's why I've been closing holes whenever they've been opened in this plain. And besides… someone's looking at us." He said, to then coldly stare to the side, cold air appearing around his pupils. " _I can see you… Dailos."_ He mentally told the creature, his tone cold and stern. "Lisa, I will stay here and take care that this tear doesn't grow any bigger. If it were to happen, the two dimensions will be annihilated, along with everything in them." He informed the Palkia.

"Hey, that's supposed to be my job." She complained.

"Do you honestly believe you can stay here and make sure that this tear doesn't grow anymore whilst keeping it open and closing any other holes that appear? You would faint from exhaustion." He stated.

The Palkia groaned. "And what am I supposed to do then?" She inquired.

"I don't know. Investigate. Try to to find out who or what has been sent here. Anything." The being answered.

"Alright… I'll see what I can do… but you're in charge!" She responded, to then teleport and leave.

* * *

In another space, the being known as Dailos had retreated. He knew the being that had discovered him, and knowing who it was made a smile grow on his face, already knowing what he was going to do.

"How convenient…" he thought out loud, the tone of his voice sinister, yet excited." With him trapped in the fabric of space… I can begin doing what I have to do, but first…" It turned around, facing a transparent vision of the planet that was right in front of him now. He focused on it. "Those two humans… have managed to evade me for months… When I find them I'll make sure they suffer, even after death." He said, anger in his voice whilst he searched around the sphere. He dismissed it, the only light in that place disappearing. "Nobody… nor anything will stop me from doing what I must." His voice echoed in the darkness.

* * *

The sound of repeated knocking woke up Jake, who got up and looked at the door. Emily was at the other side, hitting the door with her paw.

"Lunch is ready guys! Come down here already!" Emily shouted, the sound of paws over wood following her words as she moved away from the door. Jake shook his head and looked as his companions. They had all gotten some sleep, and at least he felt refreshed.

"Lunch has been prepared. We must go down immediately if we wish to be polite." The Sneasel informed them, shaking Nox and Eric, who were the closest pokémon to him. Both of them woke up and Jake repeated his words, then got down from the bed and opened the door, heading out into the hallway and going down the stairs. He wanted to get down there as soon as possible, even though he wasn't famished like the rest of his companions.

However, not only Jake heard Emily's words. Dark woke up as he heard them, stretching a little bit, his sister still sticking right next to him. The Eevee had fallen asleep whilst she was crying. "Natalie. Food is ready." He told her, moving his arms around lightly and waking her up.

"Hmm?" She murmured as she woke up, opening her eyes and looking at him, her ears standing straight whilst she yawned. "S-Sorry, I fell asleep." She stated the obvious, giggling.

"Oh really? I didn't notice." He joked, letting her go as he got up and stretched. Just then, Nat's nose twitched.

"Dark…" She called her brother, looking at him and sniffing in his general direction. "I'm still surprised at how delicate my nose is now, but… Even someone with a serious cold could smell that mechanic stench." She said.

"Is it that bad?" He asked, smelling himself… His expression told it all. "Uggh… Yeah, I think I went a little overboard with the oils." He commented.

"You don't say." She commented.

"Well, at least I'm not the only one who stinks in this room. I think you've been between my arms for a while." He answered. Nat immediately sniffed herself, and her expression didn't differ from Dark's.

"You'll pay for this sometime... And I still prefer bathing alone, thank you." She said, remembering the last time they had a hot bath… She certainly would've never thought that one of those relaxing moments could ever turn into something that was so shameful on a personal level.

"Well, with how much we stench… I doubt even bathing in a river would help." He said.

"Oh shut up!" She responded, really irritated. "There's no other option." She then added, looking away.

"You better not complain. Let's just go and get this over with already." He groaned.

"Says the one who managed to go back to standing on two feet." She snarled back.

Dark showed her his paws. "Do you see any thumbs over here?" He asked.

"No, but I can see three fangs that allow you to clench your paws and allow you to grab stuff with ease." She said, getting really technical with him. He looked at his claws and moved them around like she said with a dumb expression on his face.

"Touche… So, want to go first?" He asked her.

"What do you m-" She began, but before she could end the door to their room opened, Ichiro leaning inside.

"Dark? Natalie? Lunch is… Ooooooi!" He said, retreating from the room. "Look, I'm not gonna say anything, but you need a bath ASAP." The boy said, the Eevee blushing madly and looking at the ground, her ears lowering.

Back with the other group, Eric got sat up, carefully removing his arms from around Elly and stretched his arms, yawning and looking down at Elly, who was still sleeping. He shook her lightly. "Hey Elly… c'mon, wake up sleepyhead, lunch's ready." He whispered, the normal type pokémon opening her eyes and winking, obviously sleepy from having woken so suddenly, letting out a long yawn.

"Eh? What? How? What's going on?" She asked when she could, her movements waking up Serge. Eric repeated all that he had said, but his message didn't reach the Eevee's ears as Serge let out a yawn of his own and spread his wings.

"Hey, why did you wake us up?" The bird asked, Eric letting out a sigh. He repeated the message for a third and final time. Nox only needed to hear the first part however as he darted out of bed and straight to the hallway and down the stairs, going so quickly he could've tripped and fallen all the way down.

"Watch where you're going, you jackass!" Lucy screamed from downstairs, her voice showing her anger. Serge smiled, getting down from bed whilst Eric grabbed Elly and helped her down, putting her on the floor, the Eevee nuzzling his side tenderly, still half asleep.

"Well c'mon! What are we waiting for? I'm famished, and I want to say **(?)** what these guys eat!" The Pidgeot exclaimed, anxious to get out of the room and head downstairs. He headed out right after Eric and Elly, who nodded and left the room, the door closing behind the trio. They heard voices to their left, and once they looked in that direction they saw Ichiro, who was following the same path they were going to go through.

"Hey there, uh… Icho?" Serge asked, not really remembering the human's name, although he was sure he knew his name began with "Ich".

"Hey, what's up?" The silver haired boy asked, smiling, although he didn't answer the Pidgeot's question.

"Pretty good, thanks for the room by the way. The bed was so comfy we all fell asleep in like two minutes!" He responded with a smile, but still not remembering his name.

"Hey hey, slow down… I can get a general idea of what you're telling me, but I don't understand completely everything." The human said, looking at the winged pokémon, which was just as high as he was. "Let's see… You're telling me you liked the room, right?" He asked. Serge responded with a nod, the human being able to guess what he was thanking thanks to how he had communicated, the tone of his voice, which sounded sleepy, and some gestures. The bird finally understood where the communication problem was and gave up on trying to learn the human's name, deciding he would ask someone else later.

"Well anyways… What do we have to eat?" He asked, pointing at the stairs with a wing, then opening his beak and pointing at it with the same appendage.

"Vegetable stew with berries. Your friend, Zed, is really good at cooking. It looks really good, and smells good as well. Haven't you caught a whiff yet?" He asked, since he could smell the food from there himself. Elly closed her eyes and sniffed the air, catching a series of smells that felt familiar, like Eric's, and others that were new. One of the new ones was really pleasant, and it made her mouth water, so she guessed it was the food. The Eevee nodded enthusiastically, now really eager to try out the food.

Serge looked at them, frustrated. "Well come on! Are we going or what?" He asked his companions, which nodded. Eric turned to face Ichiro and pointed at his friends and himself, then pointed at the stairs, making a waving motion with his other paw.

"Of course, I was on my way there. By the way, I think that you and, emmm… the Eevee I can understand just fine, even if you speak to me directly." He said with a smile, not daring to guess Elly's gender or name without knowing it. "There's three more Eevees in the house now, and long before that Hadrim was an Eevee, and Luca was a Riolu back in the day too." He explained why he could only understand the two of them perfectly. "By the way, nice tattoo." He pointed at Eric's right arm as he said this. Eric looked down and smiled, glad that the human liked it.

"Like it? It's the emblem of our team… but that's a story for another day. C'mon, let's go downstairs." He said, Pidgeot sighing in relief, knowing that they were finally going to go eat something. He began walking down the stairs, his friends and the human around him.

"I see… hey, you all have that tattoo? Or is it something only you have?" Ichiro asked. Eric and Elly exchanged a glance, the Riolu looking at the human and saying that only he had it, then looked back down as they headed downstairs.

"Well, it's not a bad idea. If you all had the emblem it would like saying "Hey there, look at who I am." Specially if it's related to you and your team. It would make recognizing eachother much easier, and also easier for others. Even those that you don't want to be recognized by." He said. He didn't understand that the emblem did look cool visually… but was a painful reminder of what had happened in the past.

"So…" Serge began, trying to change the conversation topic. "You say you don't understand half of what we say, eh?" The bird asked, his wings folded to his sides and trying to occupy the least amount of space possible whilst going down the stairs.

"Uhh…" The boy responded, trying to understand what he had heard, trying to come up with an answer for Serge. "I'm sorry… I didn't catch that one." He gave up, Ichiro rubbing the back of her neck with a nervous smile, Serge laughing at this.

"Don't worry, don't worry, it's ok. You'll get used to it. That being said… If you can't understand us, then forget trying to understand what Jake says. Half of the time we don't even know what he's saying!" Serge laughed at what he just said. Ichiro looked at him for a while, not knowing if he should laugh as well or not. This time he understood he should just drop it and… not much else.

" _Did he just tell me a joke or something?"_ Ichiro thought to himself, deciding to keep silent for the time being. Once they got to the bottom floor, Ichiro guided them to the dining room, where the table was already set, with Jake, Lucy, Zed and Emily already sitting down, but still not eating.

"About time! You've been keeping us waiting here for half an hour with the food in front of our faces, slowpokes!" Lucy shouted from the other side of the table. Jake cleared his throat.

"Technically, it's only been ten minutes Lucy, or a third part of half an hour, whichever way you prefer to say it. In other words, you should have said that they took a third of half an hour." The Sneasel corrected her, looking at the three pokemon that had taken so long to come down. "But it is undeniable that you took way too long. Do you have any convincing excuses or should I write you all of as rude?" He later asked.

"We found Ichiro on the way down and started talking with him. And hey, it was just ten minutes. It's not like the world's ending or something." Elly reminded everyone, approaching the table and trying to decide where she and Eric would sit. The Riolu looked at his mate, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you serious? After the way you shouted at me the other day when we headed out for a mission, and now it's not a problem when it doesn't concern you? Really Elly?" The fighting type reminded the Eevee, who didn't know how to answer asides from pushing him, both angry and amused. She knew he was right, but her hunger made everything else seem secondary.

"Well, you can start eating now. I need to help two pokémon take a bath, so be right back." Ichiro said, heading to the bathroom to prepare the bathtub for Natalie and Dark.

"Alright so… before we start eating, you know a basic rule before sitting down to eat, right?" Luca asked from the kitchen door, waiting for their responses. A certain Zorua had been calm enough to do what the Lucario was referring to, and not just because he fell into a water filled sink. However, nobody else seemed to know what the Lucario was talking about and looked at her, confused. Luca glanced at Zed when she noticed the looks on their faces, but she wasn't angry or anyhting like that, but she guessed that he wouldn't have shared that norm due to his shyness. Before she could say anything though, Shade came out of the kitchen, her muzzle dripping with water, since she had just washed her face, along with her paws, Radius right after her, then Luna and finally Hadrim, who greeted them with a smile.

He apologized for not waking them up for lunch as he had told them and everyone took a seat. Daniel and Clara had already eaten and had left the whole table for the pokémon, but Ichiro had decided to eat with them. Luca smiled as she saw them all like that. "You have to wash yourselves before eating. So come on, go to the kitchen and wash your faces and paws." She said, sounding convincing but still calm. All of the pokémon but Zed and Lucy went away from the table, a little angry and headed to the kitchen to wash themselves.

The first one to come back was Jake. "I have a question. Why must quadruped pokémon wash their paws? They are touching the ground constantly, and it is usually dusty or filthy." The Sneasel asked the Lucario.

"Well… in order to wash their faces they have to use their paws, right? Whether they use them or not to eat doesn't matter, since they end up washing them." Luca responded.

"Hmm… true true, it would be hard for them to wash their muzzles without using their paws… Forgive my impertinence, Miss Luca." The Sneasel responded, performing a small bow in the form of an apology, sitting on his chair.

"You don't have to apologize. You were curious and you asked. And please, don't speak to me so formally" Luca said, smiling.

"Does it bother you if I speak like this? I am sorry then, from now on I will try to be more… colloquial around you." He said, apologizing once again and bowing. Whilst this was happening, Eric, Elly, Emily and Serge came back to the table.

"You could say that it bothers me, but it's not that, it's simply that I want you to feel at home." She said, giving him a motherly smile at the very end. "Well…. seeing as you're all clean… Let's begin!" She said whilst she went into the kitchen to pick up her plate, sitting down next to Hadrim. They all got ready to eat, but just as they were going to do so, Eric looked around.

"Hey… where's Nox?" He asked, looking at Elly, who was sitting right besides him. The Eevee shrugged, and Eric looked at the rest of his companions to receive the same response. Nox was nowhere to be seen. "Hey Hadrim, can you use your powers to find Nox? We better do before he messes up something." The fighting type asked the Espeon.

Hadrim looked at them and closed his eyes, the sapphire on his forehead letting out a faint glow whilst he expanded his mind, those who were used to it feeling as if a sheet covered their heads lightly whilst the psychic looked for Nox.

Nox, who had been waiting for his turn to wash himself, noticed a door at the other side of the kitchen, one that didn't lead outside to the backyard nor the one from the which he had gone into. Curiosity got the best of him and he approached the door when nobody was with him, pushing it with his nuzzle and looking inside. It was pitch black, so he couldn't see anything.

"What the… How come all of these rooms are dark? Are they carrying candles on them all the time, or can they see in the darkness?" He asked out loud. Hadrim found him at that exact moment, smiling at that comment.

" _Not exactly."_ Hadrim said, using his psychic to turn on the lights. " _They flip these switches and turn on the lights. Dark rooms either have no windows or the windows are closed, to avoid any thieves from getting inside."_ Hadrim explained.

The garage was pretty big all things considered, with two doors, one being the one that lead to the kitchen, and the other that was just as big as the wall where it was, located at the other side of where Nox was standing. The walls were covered with boards, from the which tools were hanging, such as hammers, screwdivers and various desks, all with more tool boxes that were properly placed. In the center of the room was Daniel's car, which doubled as the vehicle for the entire family. Hadrim explained everything that caught the Houndour's eye, which was basically everything in that room. Next to some of the desks he could see red cans with a black covers, empty as the Espeon told him, the whole ceiling of the room was bare, and the only thing that was hanging from it was the single lightbulb that illuminated the entire room. The last thing Nox saw was something big, covered by a cloth, but not as big as the car, and Hadrim told the fire type that it was Dark's project, and that he was better off leaving it where it was.

Nox was tempted to remove the cloth and see what it was, but decided against so. He was really hungry, and he had decided to go explore for a while to see what else the house had to offer. It was pretty big and he liked it a lot to be honest, but he found it weird that this was someone else's house and he was able to walk around so calmly. "Well… I think I've seen all that I wanted… I suppose I'll head back." Nox said out loud whilst he left the room, leaving the lights on and closing the door as best as he could. He came out to the living room shortly after, appearing in front of everyone else.

"Did you wash yourself?" Luca asked as soon as she noticed that he was completely dry. Nox bit his lower lip, determined to argue with the Lucario about that. However, a glare from all his companions and a look at Serge, who winced, convinced him to go. He disappeared once more, no other sound but the sound of cuttelery on plates audible in the house…

"Holy shit that's cold!" The Houndour shouted to the top of his lungs as soon as he put his paws in the water, everyone in the room unable to hold back their laughter.

"Could've been any of you." Hadrim commented whilst he held back laughter since for all he knew none of them knew how to regulate the temperature of the water, with the exception of Zed and Lucy.

"Actually Hadrim, that is not true. For me, the water was lukewarm, whilst my companions found it refreshing and somewhat cold, but not to that extreme. The sensation we perceive when we touch a liquid is determined by our internal temperature. Mine is lower than average, which in turn made me feel as if the water was lukewarm, whilst Nox, whose temperature is above average feels as if the water is freezing." The Sneasel explained. Hadrim smiled at this, showing his fangs even.

"You're missing my reference to the fact you don't know how to regulate the temperature of the water." The Espeon responded.

Jake tilted his head to the side. "Reference? Did you just use **(-)** a play a words? I am not familiarized with that type of humour yet." He admitted.

"Jake, you're just as familiarized with any type of humour as we are with this world! Hold on, let me put it in numbers so you understand: Zero!" Lucy barked from the other side of the table, the Sneasel opting to ignore her comment.

"What I said was that you don't know how to make the water come out either warm or cold." Hadrim said.

"Ah… is that possible?" The ice type asked. Him and the Espeon began talking about how it was possible to regulate the temperature of the water. Nox came out of the kitchen and hastily walked towards his chair, right next to Serge. The others had already began eating, and the Houndour didn't wait too long to being devouring the food on his plate.

Minutes after that, Dark and Natalie showed up, Ichiro accompanying them, the boy's clothes soaked, the siblings trying to hide their shame behind their poker faces, trying to not feel awkward about what just happened. The Zoroark waved at everyone to try to keep his mind off of that. "Hey there!" He sniffed the air. "Hey, what's that delicious smell?" He asked whilst he approached the table to take a set in one of the three free chairs, Natalie sitting besides him without saying a word. She was rather small, but her real strength laid in her intelligence, which her eyes showed well now that she was more calm than before her nap.

"Vegetable and berry stew! I helped coo…. cook… t.. them…" Zed stuttered and froze on the spot as soon as he saw the Zoroark, his eyes looking at his form. Even though his fur and hair were different… he was definitely a Zoroark.

"Luca let you cook? Well that's new." He said with a smirk, only showing his fangs whilst he looked at the Zorua.

"Oi! Dark!" She shouted, the tall dark type laughing.

"It's just a joke, just a joke." He said, turning to look at Zed again. "Well… my name's Dark Corel… Well, now Dark Zoroark Corel." He corrected himself with a smile. He then noticed that Zed wasn't snapping out of his trance. "What's with that look?" He asked. No response. "Hey, you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost." He pointed out. Lucy looked at her mate, worried. Dark was right. Zed was mortified.

"Zed?! What's wrong? Are you alright?" She asked, really worried, everyone in the room looking at him. The Zorua noticed he was the centre of attention and looked at everyone.

"Uuuuh…. I… No nothing it's just that… He… reminds me of… Nevermind, forget I said anything." He suddenly finished, pushing his plate. "I'm not hungry anymore." He stated, getting down from his chair. Lucy leaned towards him and tried to grab his fur, but to her surprise the Zorua pushed her paw away and headed for the stairs in a hurry, almost bumping into a table on his way there. He tried his hardest to ignore the bipedal fox, going up the stairs quickly.

Nobody said anything for a while. "Well… I think I may have triggered something…" Dark told himself in a whisper.

"What do you mean?" Natalie asked, who had heard him.

"From what he said and how he reacted… and taking into account that Zorua evolves into a Zoroark… At least from what I guess, whether they're good or bad I don't know, but I think I've made him remember something he had been trying his hardest to forget." Dark responded. He had no way of knowing he would react like that, so it wasn't his fault, yet the Zoroark couldn't help but feel slightly guilty. Lucy sat there, looking in the direction Zed had left, a mix of emotions coursing through her body, but the one that stood out was frustration, which culminated in anger when she realized that she didn't know what was wrong with Zed, and that she apparently wasn't able to help him. The Shinx roared out and separated herself from the table, jumping down from her chair and leaving the room without saying a word. All of their friends stayed where they were, looking at the now empty chairs in silence. Elly, who had been sitting right next to Lucy, who had been sitting right next to Zed, looked at the rest, giving them a forced smile.

"I think that… Uh… I think he isn't feel very well… He's really shy around new pokémon and… I imagine that seeing more people has scared him or something like that…" The Eevee theorized. Eric could sense the tension Zed and Lucy had left behind, so he could already have a general idea that they were going to have a "party" that afternoon. However, what worried him was the fear that the Zorua had left behind. It had only manifested itself when the Zoroark had showed, so he deduced they were related. He didn't say anything else for the time being however, seeing as it wasn't the best of times to spout something like "You scared him" at Dark, who was already feeling guilty enough. He ended up presenting himself and the rest of his companions to the newest additions to the table.

With that whole mess and presentations out of the way, Natalie saying who she was, using the same last name her brother had used and making the same mistake, lunch transpired without anything else of interest happening. After they finished, Dark and Natalie took up washing the dishes, grabbing Zed's and Lucy's plates and putting them in the fridge whilst everyone parted ways to do whatever they wanted. After washing the dishes, Natalie was assaulted by Hadrim, who kept telling her that they needed to practice the Eevee's physical moves in the case she got into a fight, not even letting the Eevee leave the kitchen, whilst Dark went out to the backyard and sat down near the edge, closing his eyes and crossing his legs, relaxing himself in order to meditate.

During one his training sessions, not too long ago, Luca had discovered something strange. She had thrown an aura sphere at him during a sparring match, and had then discovered that the Zoroark had a strangely high affinity to aura, at least when not compared to other Lucario or Mienshao.

She had been trying to show him some things about aura, but even though the Zoroark could sense the aura and was capable of controlling the moves she threw at him, her sky blue aura changing to purplish when the move reached his paws, he hadn't been able to summon his own attacks, so Luca had recommended he relaxed and try to feel the aura around him to try and teach him how to use his affinity to aura to be able to see it.

After that strange lunch, all of the team members gave their thanks to the Kaiser and headed upstairs. Just like Eric suspected, they began hearing screaming and crying from behind their door. The Riolu sighed and he opened the door without hesitation. To his surprise, it wasn't Zed who was crying, but Lucy. "Why won't you tell me?! Don't you trust me?!" She asked him, the Zorua lying on the ground, his head between his crossed front legs.

"No Lucy, it's not that… I already told you I don't even want to remember it to begin with… So let's just drop this!" He screamed at her.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that!" She snarled back quickly. Just then, Eric stepped in between them.

"Whoa whoa whoa, time out! Calm down, will ya?!" The Riolu shouted, placing his two paws in the shape of a T, requesting a little bit of calm time. It worked to some degree, Zed and Lucy staring at him. He rubbed the area between his eyes. "Alright… Can you please tell me what that was all about just now? Why did you just run away as soon as Dark appeared? You left the poor guy flabbergasted when you left like that just because you saw him." He said, Zed looking away.

"It wasn't anything really… It was… We ate something whilst cooking and I may have gotten sick because of it… Also, all those people down there have offered us their home, their food and they're so kind… I just don't feel ok being here." The Zorua, having trouble admitting it. Lucy sat there, looking at him for a few moments. Something inside of her was telling her that Zed was lying, but she already knew that trying to pressure him into telling her would not work. She wasn't dumb, so she decided to drop it.

"Alright, if you say so…" She said, turning around and laying on the ground, facing away from the Zorua, who looked at the ground, ashamed, but didn't say anything else.

"Well… Now that this whole thing is solved… I guess we should move on to the second topic of the day." He said, sighing and looking at Jake, motioning him to close the door. The Sneasel did so and the Riolu turned to face everyone. "Are we going to stay or are we going to leave?" He asked everyone in the group.

"Whazzat?" Serge asked, Eric's words catching him off-guard.

"What you heard. I'm putting it up to voting whether or not we're staying in the Kaiser household or if we are leaving and trying to find a way to go back home." The Riolu explained.

"Yeah, we all caught that Eric. But… really, why do you even have to ask? Of course we're staying! We don't have anywhere else to go, and besides, I don't think we're going to find a way home in just one day." The bird answered.

"And expose them to the dangers we drag behind us on a daily basis? Serge, think about what you want to say before saying it. We came to this world by accident whilst fighting against an extremely powerful foe, and the probability of him following us is too high for us to ignore. For this reason, it's only a matter of time before he finds us, and when he does… He will give us chase until he kills all of us and anyone that has crossed our paths. And if we stay here when that happens, the Kaiser will suffer." Jake calmly explained.

"Yeah… but if we don't stay, and that thing comes around following our trail…. it will come here eventually. And if that happens and we're not here…" Nox trembled as he thought about it. "Nah, I'm with Serge. We have to stay now." He concluded. Jake wasn't sure on whether Nox was saying that because he was lazy or if he wanted to follow Serge's game. Either way, the ice type shook his head.

"Illogical. Staying here will mean putting a lot of lives on the line. We must leave inmediately." He sentenced. Eric stopped this conversation by raising a paw.

"Alright, let's vote then, shall we?" He asked. "Who wants to leave?" He inquired, raising a paw himself. Zed and Jake followed his example.

"I already said why. I don't like it that these people are wasting their time and taking care of us whilst we sit idly and do nothing." The Zorua justified.

"And… who wants to stay?" Eric asked. This time, Elly, Lucy, Serge, Nox and Emily rose a paw.

"I agree with Nox. That thing is going to follow our trail if we move, and if it finds anyone in this house it will kill them without thinking it twice, and it will be our fault." She said, looking at her mate. "I can't allow that to happen Eric. They have a better chance to survive if we stay. I can't afford them to die." She firmly stated.

"If I were to be honest… I propose we take this as some sort of… mini-vacation. We've been fighting and working our rears off for quite a while, so it wouldn't hurt us to relax for a while, right? Besides, if that thing decides to show up, we'll be spending most of the day here, so if it shows it's ugly face, we'll just kick it's ass and bring it home with us! That way, everybody is happy!" The Shinx proposed. Eric glanced at her.

"You do realize that we're all going to get up each day extremely early to have intense training sessions and take turns guarding the house during both the day and night so that we don't fall out of shape, right?" He reminded her. She just nodded repeatedly. He sighed. "Alright then… the result is of three… against five, so we are staying until new notice. Elly and I will go talk with Luca and Hadrim and explain them the situation. After all, they are the ones that get to choose whether or not we can stay or not." The Riolu said, everyone agreeing with that decision.

After all, it seemed like their visit to that world was going to be quite lengthy…

 **And now we've been introduced to all of the Kaiser family members. They are Rayduran's characters and whatever they do he will control them, so that's why their dialogues are written in a different style. Not only that, but certain things will also be written by him. But anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter of this new fic, and I'll see you on the next one! Take care!**


	3. Chapter 2 - A New World

**Here you go! Finally, we managed to get this one out. We are both sorry for taking so long, but life decided to be mean to us these last few weeks, so we couldn't work on this for too long. That being said, sad news, finals are coming up where I am, so... That means that I won't be able to do much for at least a month. I'll try to fit in a few writing hours whenever I can (mainly weekend nights) but... yeah, I'm sorry to announce this.**

 **On another note, here's a new chapter for you guys to enjoy, so without any further ado... Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 2**

 **A New World**

He was there, waiting on the line with his new acquisition in hand, waiting impatiently for the line to go on and reach him. He was starting to get ticked off but remained silent, entertaining himself by playing with his mobile phone some pokémon game where you have to group up pokémon faces to get points, reaching a minimum score to be able to go to the next level of the game. He was a kid, around nine, almost ten. He had short black hair, his skin pale due to not going out much, his eyes were light blue, he was just one and a quarter meters tall, he wore a black T-shirt with one of his favorite games plastered on it, this game being a war game famous world wide, great for ones and totally lame for other. The kid wore also some black trousers and white comfortable runners.

After half an hour, the kid finally got to the till and handed the game to the cashier, who inspected the game while the kid started to look for his wallet. "You know you should not play this game, right? It's for ages over thirteen years old." The man said. He was… in around all means of the word, a nerd, that got lucky enough to work in a game store, thus being able to keep in check with new games that came to his country.

"Oh come on, dude. Don't give me that. I'm paying for the game and that's all you should care about." The boy said, surprised by this since he was able to buy other games, even for ages over eighteen! in this same store, several times before this, and now this guy was telling him no? "Well i'm sorry but I can't sell you this game without your parents here." Well it seemed like it.

The kid and the cashier argued about this, the kid repeating non stop that since he was paying for it the man should mind his own business since he was going to get paid either way, but the man kept on telling him he should get games for his age. The entire argument ended with the kid out of the store, without game, but with his money… and throwing a big tantrum, even threatening them that he won't go back to that shop to buy anything anymore… a threat hard to keep since it was the nearest game store to his house.

After this disappointment, the kid started to head back home. He decided to have a walk through the nearest park since it was in the way to try and calm himself down. He had parents yes, but they were always so busy that neither could go with him anywhere. But that wasn't what frustrated him the most, it was that nerd, the same that had sold other children those games that where for ages above them by even five years! And when it was him who the man attended, he just said 'no'. " _What the hell is his problem!?_ " The kid thought, kicking a can he found on the ground and making it rise from the floor, hit a trash can and go right inside "Humpf." He humphed not caring that he just did something with a probability to happen of one in ten million… unless practiced, but this wasn't the case for him, he just got lucky. Too bad for him since his luck ended there.

All of a sudden his vision went completely white. The kid felt himself as if he weighed nothing at all for just a few instants to then feel himself falling face first on the dirt. He stood up after some seconds, feeling really dizzy. The world spinning around him whilst he tried to keep his balance.

Near that place, two men dressed in the same outfit, this being a military camouflage outfit with a sand colour heard a noise nearby. The two men stood on alert upon hearing it and decided to follow the noise to know what happened. The mans where guarding a household a good few kilometers away from the nearest city, it was a huge mansion of stone, walls painted white on the outside, and even the doors and the window frames were white, the house had two floors and a big garage. The courtyard was well cared for, plants and even a pair of trees grew there without a problem, along with other flower bushes and even some berry bushes of different types. The guards only went around a corner of the front garden to see a boy standing there, a circle of the garden around him had disappeared, leaving dirt on the place where grass should be, and what shocked them the most, there was a bench near the boy as well… but first, the guards had been working there for months and had never seen a bench in the whole garden or courtyard, and second and what made the situation even weirder, said bench was cleanly cut in half, not falling to the floor because of being fixed to it by thick moorings.

The boy turned around after a moment, searching for someone, and saw them. Seeing other people there he decided to ask, now the he had recovered mostly from his dizziness and the world has stopped spinning. "Oi! Do you know where am I? I don't know how I came to be here." The kid explained to them.

"You are on private property, kid, get out of here before we make you." One of the man in the sand colored camouflage outfit said with an aggressive tone.

"Woah! Woah! No need to get all grumpy, old man." The boy said, raising his hands in a gesture that he had done nothing. "Imma get outta here now, geez." He said and then turned around to start walking looking for a door to exit. However, as soon as the kid gave some steps, he heard running steps and turned again, only to see one of the man grabbing him by the neck and held him still while the other took a syringe out of his pocket, it filled with some strange substance. The kid immediately went into panic mode and started thrashing and kicking. "Let me go!" he demanded but the stronger adult had him well held.

"Oh, sorry, brat. Did i say you could go? My bad. I actually meant: Welcome to your new life." The man holding him said while the other got to them and mercilessly jabbed the syringe in the boy's neck, piercing the jugular and emptying the contents of it in his bloodstream. The boy screamed in pain and twisted even harder. The man letting go of him once the thing was emptied and he started to run, both the adults just trotting behind him until whatever it was that was injected on him took its effect. The boy started to feel numb and tired and he did not last long before falling to the grass, asleep. "Told ya that thing never fails." one of the man said when they reached the boy.

"Yeah. Whatever you say. I owe you a hundred poké. Now get the rat inside." the other said while the first picked up the boy like he would pick up a potatoes sack and carried the kid inside the house.

* * *

 **Spaceplane**

The creature had his whole focus on keeping the big rift on the space, while at the same time closing holes that appeared on the plane. However, all of a sudden it felt it. A strong, intense pain. The surprise mixed with the sheer intensity of it made the creature roar in pain. Its roar making the whole plane shake violently. The creature lost its concentration and the tear started to close. "Oh, no! You won't close the path!" it roared as it sent a wave of power through the connection, opening it as big as before again while going back to keeping it open and closing the little holes that appeared. " _What… was that?_ " it though " _So intense. I haven't felt that in millenias._ " it added, looking back towards the star on that plane that was his world, and it could see it. Two stars were connected but it wasn't only that, it could see their auras, what he saw on them made its eyes widen in horror. For the first time in milleniums... it was afraid of what was happening. It wanted to go check on the world, however, if it stopped keeping the rift open, the force at the other side will close it without a doubt, trapping the ones that came from that universe into this in this forever, without chances of going back… To return home...

With that in mind, the creature concentrated, closing it eyes. Again pain surged, a bad looking cut, similar to that that a slashing lefts behind, appearing on the left side of its face and starting to bleed. It risked it, let go of the rift and sent a barrier between the two stars, cutting off the connection between their auras for the time being, to then go back to keep the rift open, but the wounds suffered were still there, since it had only stopped the problem but not made sure that it would not happen, it was just refraining it from happening. While concentrating on this, he risked one more thing, it needed to do something, to know how things were going back in the world. This was serious stuff and it could not have happened at worst time! It had to know what was happening and also keep doing its job. But it could not leave that plane… it had a hard decision to make but for now it'll stay where it was, holding the rift open. " _There's no time for fear… I got a work to do._ " It thought, closing its eyes and focusing.

* * *

The sun still hadn't risen over the horizon, yet Serge was wide awake, watching over his companions as they slept. He had been the one to take guard duty that night. It was mainly for security purposes, not only for his group but the whole household in general. Eric and Elly would have to consult Hadrim and Luca so they allowed them to move around the house in the night, but for the time being it would suffice. He hadn't been the only one to watch over them the whole night however. The first one had been Eric, then Zed and finally the Zorua woke him up to do the rest of the night. However, it was probably getting close to dawn, as he couldn't see either stars or the moon through the window.

He shivered. It was pretty damn cold for a couple of islands, and sadly there weren't any bed sheets left for him, but Luca had promised to bring them one for the next night. One thing he knew for sure, was that he wouldn't be watching over them the next night. No sir. Either way, he could understand why they wanted someone to stay awake. They still didn't fully trust the Kaiser family, and even though they had offered them a house and a room to sleep in, it was better this way, at least until they got familiarized with them.

The other reason, however, was in case that guy decided to show up it's face again. Serge shivered at the thought of finding that thing looking through the window, but fortunately it hadn't happened to either Zed or Eric, so he hadn't expected for it happen to him. He yawned, getting up from the floor where he was sitting. He had been resting his back against the door so he could hear anything that came from the other side, but so far it was silent as a grave. He carefully walked over to the window, stepping in the areas of the floor where no pokémon were sleeping. He almost stepped on Zed's head on his way to the window, but once he got there he sighed in relief and looked outside. He could see some light in the horizon, so he guessed the sun was about to come out. Zed had told him to wake them up around that time.

"Alright everyone! Time to wake up!" He shouted all of a sudden, everyone in the room jolting up, getting ready to fight. Eric's eyes snapped wide open and punched Elly's muzzle as he stood up, looking around to try and find any dangers, whilst Elly remained on the ground, holding back tears whilst rubbing her muzzle. Zed screamed like a female, and Lucy also screamed, her yelling more high pitched that her mate's, whilst Jake suddenly sprung up and brought his claws out, the dim light coming through the window reflecting off of their smooth surface. Finally, Nox and Emily stayed where they were, on the verge of the dream world and the reality. Once everyone saw that it was just Serge waking them up because it was time they visibly relaxed.

"Arceus… You scared the hell out of us… Why'd you have to shout?! You could've just woken us slowly one by one!" The Riolu scolded, Serge lifting his wings.

"Well… It got the job done either way, right? And besides… considering how hard you decked her, I don't want to be anywhere near you when you wake up like that." He said, pointing at the groaning Eevee that had been sleeping with Eric. The Riolu froze on the spot and glanced at his mate.

"Shit… Elly, are you alright? Did I hurt you?" He asked her, walking back to her and crouching down. She nodded, looking at him.

"Be more careful next time will you?! This is the third time this has happened!" She scolded him, the Eevee ranting about how he was so nervous all the time that he didn't sleep properly. "I swear, sometimes you've even hugged me whilst sleeping and your arms were tense." She concluded her rant with that sentence. Eric blushing and scratching the back of his head, giving her a nervous smile.

"Well… Uh… That's just the way I sleep, alright? Anyways… let's get outside so we can begin training, alright? But… be quiet, there's other pokémon in this house, trying to sleep." He told them.

Jake shook his head. "With how loudly Serge shouted… I pretty much doubt that there's anyone sleeping, unless the walls in this house are thick enough to diminish the intensity of his shout." The Sneasel speculated. After waiting around for a few minutes and snapping out of their sleepiness, the group, minus Emily, who stayed in the room to sleep some more, headed out of their room and down the stairs. They didn't take any detours and headed straight for the kitchen, then walked outside to the backyard. Nox saw a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter, but Eric advised him to not eat anything, that later on they would get a proper breakfast.

Once outside, everyone finally stretched and yawned, Nox trembling. "Jeez… It's really cold outside! Why the hell are we doing this?!" He asked them. It was cold outside, but the rest didn't say anything, mainly because they knew they were going to warm up very soon.

"Because we can't lose shape Nox. We have to stay alert and ready for anything. We will do these sessions once every two days, so don't complain too much." The Riolu stated, the Houndour biting his lip and looking away, growling and muttering under his breath. The group started with some stretching, but then decided to split up. Eric said that Zed had to work on his stamina, and Lucy decided that maybe they should have a small race and see if they could catch her.

"That way, I feel better than you and you get to run a whole lot!" She proposed, Eric and Zed sighing.

"If you want to look at it that way… sure." The dark type grumpily accepted. The Shinx smirked and then zipped away, near the trees of the forest surrounding the house. She then stuck out her tongue, then turned around and began shaking her rear at them whilst taunting. Everyone guessed that this kind of taunting was directed towards her mate, but they all saw it, and Nox and Serge couldn't help but look at Zed and smile.

"Oooooooh! Looks like someone wants to play with you, Zed!" Nox said, the Zorua giving them a murderous glare.

"Go to hell." He simply said, his reaction catching them off guard. Eric and Zed ran after her, the Riolu telling his mate they would be back for breakfast. The Eevee wished him good luck, though it was only after he disappeared that she remembered he hadn't given her a good day kiss, or a goodbye kiss… he hadn't kissed her at all. This slightly annoyed her, although she knew that because of all that happened that morning and how sleepy they all were that wasn't the first thing he was going to remember to do… Either way, they too began training.

"Ok… So what I had in mind today was an agility test. We will team up against someone and that someone will have to dodge everything the team throws at him. We can do this to improve our reaction times and also trying to predict what our opponent might do. Not only that, but it will help with endurance as well, don't you think?" Elly explained her idea, everyone agreeing with her.

"Well… since you're the one that came up with that… how about you start?" Nox proposed to the Eevee, who immediately denied his request. However, a glare from him and Serge, and an icy smirk from Jake convinced her. The three males surrounded the Eevee, who got into a fighting stance as Serge and Nox chuckled, Jake looking at her.

"Also… don't throw fire or icicles. We're way too close to the house now, and I want to keep this to physical attacks only, clear?" She made sure they understood her.

"Crystal clear… Now dance!" Nox shouted as he lunged for the Eevee, swiping a claw at her side without mercy, the Eevee jumping to the left, focusing on her right to avoid Jake, who tried to punch her face, ducking under the fist, which brushed Nox's fur. Elly ran away and jumped to turn around, both of the two attacking pokémon now in her view. She didn't see Serge however, and looked up too to try and find him.

"Keep your eyes on your opponents Elly!" Jake exclaimed as he swiped at her, his claw grazing her face, the Eevee backing away from the shock, Nox howling out and trying to tackle the Eevee. However, she jumped over him as the Houndour charged forward, missing her completely. Once again, she backed away, now facing her opponents again, trying to predict what they would do next, but also worried, as she couldn't find Serge anywhere near them.

Inside of the house, Dark was slowly waking up as well. His eyes opened slowly as he completely lost his dream and woke up quickly, he had not heard any screaming nor any noises, he just woke up on his own, still a bit groggy but unable to go back to sleep. Dark rose from his shared puk-bed with Natalie and stretched himself as much as he could, some popping noises being heard while he yawned as his joints were readjusted in place for the motion and he almost fell backwards for the weight of his mane when he reached a point of having his back straight instead of leaning forwards to keep balance. After that he turned around to see the still sleeping Eevee, smiled at her and covered her with the blanket they shared as well. The thought of sleeping together in the same bed was weird for them before all of this. However, for some reason, now they found it to be the most comfortable thing, knowing that the other is by their side.

After that, he looked at his paws and saw the bandages. He stopped, looked at them for a moment and then took one off, revealing the fur under the bandage, the fur there was already short but near his paws it was even shorter, the skin almost visible showing a bit of a burning scar that stopped bothering the Zoroark long ago, but it was still there. Dark put the bandage back and repeated this with the other hand, which appearance didn't differ much from the other.

After this, Dark approached the desk and picked up his medicine. The pills sounding inside the recipient and he took one from it and threw it inside his muzzle, swallowing it dry and then left the medicine back on top of the desk, stopping for a moment to look at the photos on top of it, to then get out of the room, closing the door silently and he started walking silently towards the stairs, his claws making some noise against the wooden floor but not much. When he reached the stairs he looked at the room at the far end of the hallway, hoping he had not woken anyone up, going down and going to the kitchen. Clara, like every night before going to sleep, had prepared some fruits for any early risers, being a big plate filled with fruiots and berries for almost everyone staying at the house, Dark picked up an apple and went out to the backyard, opening the door while munching on the apple and then closing behind him. The cold dawn air greeting him but he just shrugged it off, used to this kind of weather every morning. It was then that he saw Elly, Serge, Jake and Nox there. "Morning." he greeted them with a sleepy, groggy voice even when he seemed to be fully awake.

Elly was shouting at S erge, who was sitting in front of the entrance of the shed, his eyes closed. "You're unbelievable Serge!" She screamed.

"Hey, lower your voice, will ya? I'm trying to catch some zees. Wake me up when it's my turn though. I seriously need to get some sleep, I've been watching over you guys for two hours…" He excused himself, getting comfy in his feathers. It was colder outside, but he would deal with it. He really needed to get some more rest. The only pokémon who seemed to notice the Zoroark's arrival was Jake, who bowed down.

"Good morning, Dark the Zoroark. Did you sleep soundly? I hope we didn't wake you up with our training." Jake apologized in advance.

"Not a sound reached my room this morning so… don't worry about me, but there is still some that are sleeping." he answered the Sneasel, not minding his way of talking one bit, even if the Zoroark tried to make him talk less… like he did, it was extremely hard for the Ice type or so it seemed. so he decided on not even asking after two others asked him.

After a bit of greeting and talking, Dark waved goodbye at them and started to walk off, having to stop a moment and literally make himself disappear as Lucy, Eric and Zed ran by. "C'mon! I've seen faster Slugmas!" The Shinx shouted, trying to motivate both the Riolu and the Zorua. Dark kept himself invisible even after they disappeared from his view. The last thing he wanted was to interrupt whatever they were doing with just his presence, it was bad enough yesterday, Dark even choosing to eat his dinner in his room last night as to avoid making Zed more depressed that day. When the running trio was a good ways away, he let go of his illusion while looking at the path they had followed, to then shake his head, sigh and go on his own way.

After walking for a bit he got to the river where he normally bathed. Finishing his apple he went into the cold water and submerged himself in it, using his claws to keep himself from getting carried away. Some seconds later, the Zoroark rose out of it and shook himself. Almost all his fur losing the excess of water, except his mane. " _This is a pain… I wonder if I can have it shorter?_ " He thought while caressing his mane with his paws, and with a lot of care, trying to rub the water manually off until he felt satisfied. After his short bath, he decided to stay on the vicinity of the river for once, the sound of the running water feeling soothing to his ears and even more relaxing than the melody of the forest. Finding a good spot, he sat down and closed his eyes, breathing deep and relaxing himself as much as possible, following the same instructions he received days before from Luca. The point in all this was that the Lucario wanted him to practice with his affinity with Aura, since moves of his own did not work very well for him, she said he should start by feeling it, and his surroundings, which wasn't easy at all for the Zoroark.

The sound of panting and groaning echoed in the forest. Not too far away three pokémon were running as fast as they could, running around the forest that surrounded the house. "Come on! If you think that we can catch someone like this you're wrong!" Lucy shouted. She was ahead of the entire group, stopping every so often to taunt them all. Eric came up to where she was standing, lunging at the pokémon. The Shinx merely stepped to the side, Eric bonking his head on a tree, which shook, leaves falling on him. "Too slow!" She shouted, sticking her tongue out at the Riolu. Before she could try to run away, Zed appeared and tackled the electric type.

"Gotcha!" He exclaimed, standing proudly above the female, stepping on her side. She groaned and looked at her mate, who was smiling down at her. "You lost this time Lucy!" He celebrated, the Shinx rolling her eyes.

"Whatever… you caught me off guard…" She said, not really happy that she had gotten caught. Eric shook his head and brushed off all the leaves on him. His fur was sweaty, panting heavily.

"You can't… afford to get caught Lucy. No taunting your enemy, you risk getting attacked from behind and being heavily wounded. Do not underestimate your foes, because you never know what may happen." The Riolu advised her. She got up as soon as Zed lifted his paw, both of the pokémon also incredibly sweaty.

"Noted…" She said. "Wew! You guys managed to stay close to me when I'm jogging. I'm proud of you, but… If I was trying for real you wouldn't have had a chance!" She exclaimed, trying to make their victory not that impressive. The two males sighed, Eric looking up through the trees.

"Well… it's almost sunrise now… The others should be waiting at the house training, so we should head back." Eric told them, Zed and Lucy nodding, the trio making their way back the way they came. Lucy sniffed the air, gagging.

"Jeez… I really made you guys run, didn't I?" She inquired, the Riolu sniffing his arm.

"Hmmm… Well it's not the worse I've smelled…" He said, remembering a time when him and Elly had been on a mission for several days and had gone without a bath for the entire duration of the mission… Yuck.

It had been thirty minutes since he started his meditation, but, as always, Dark couldn't see a thing with his eyes closed. True he had managed to feel his surroundings' aura and even make diference betwen some things, but he was still very new to that and almost all the Aura felt nearly the same way for him, making the task of separating each individual thing extremely difficult. However, instead of discouraging the young Zoroark, it only made him more determined to do it. The higher the effort, even more worth it the reward, after all. Either way, he had decided to stop for now, no point on going too far from what one can do. And decided to return before Natalie started freaking out on him again being out and away for so long, if she was awake by now that's it.

On the way, the Zoroark caught the scent of sweat from three pokémon, each one with a different intensity in the odour. He tried to identify the scents and succeeded on that, with one at least. During yesterday's lunch he had taken his time to memorize some scents from the newcomers and two of the ones that he smelt now where just familiar to him while one was clear that it was Eric, even under the strong smell, and remembering what he was doing earlier, the Zoroark decided to not risk it, the chance that he was still with Lucy and Zed were very high still so he let his illusion do its work and cover him under an invisibility blanket, and tried to sneak past the trio, being as silent as he could and putting between them a few meters while he walked, stepping slowly as to avoid doing much noise.

"Well… I probably don't smell too good either… and I honestly don't want to find out either, so let's just get to the Kaiser's home and… wash off all this sweat and dirt, alright? Actually… are they even going to let us wash ourselves? Do they have a bath?" Lucy asked.

Eric looked at her and nodded. "Yesterday Hadrim told us where to find it, though we didn't go inside… I'm honestly scared to figure out what their bathrooms look like." The Riolu admitted, the other two pokémon considering what he was saying. It was probably true, since they were in a different world altogether…

"Well… Either way I doubt it will something way too drastic." Zed said, looking at Lucy. "So… do you want to take the first turn then?" The dark type asked. Lucy shrugged. She answered that she would gladly, unless Elly wanted to be first. "Ah… Alright then…" The Zorua bit his lip, hoping he would've been forgiven for what had happened yesterday, but… that response discouraged him.

Whilst the trio was discussing on who would have a bath first, Dark kept on trying to sneak past them. He thought he was safe from another awkward encounter with the Shiny Zorua after advancing a bit, but when he relaxed, still invisible… he had to step on a damn twig! "Shit!" He swore in a low voice as he heard it snap under his paw and looked at the trio with urgence, hoping they hadn't heard it.

They all heard it.

Lucy was the first one to react. "Woah… Did you guys step on something?" She asked, the other two pokémon shaking their heads. Eric froze on the spot, a chill going down his spine and he closed his eyes immediately, using his aura senses. His vision darkened momentarily as he closed his eyes, but he was quickly able to perceive his surroundings. It was a strange way of seeing the world, as it was all mostly obscured, the only things that he was able to see being living creatures, whose auras gave out more or less light, depending on how much aura flowed through them, and the immediate vicinity of these creatures, as if they were shedding light near them. He looked around, seeing Lucy's and Zed's auras, the Shinx's bright yellow and the Zorua's a deep purple… and then he saw it.

Not too far behind them, a strange magenta aura with small tinges of orange floating around, barely perceptible to his senses. But it was still there, a sore sight in contrast to the peaceful blue of the rest of the trees. He didn't hesitate. "Behind!" He exclaimed, twisting his body around, summoning his aura to his right paw and immediately hurling an aura sphere at the general direction of the aura at high speeds, whilst readying another sphere in his left paw and raising it over his head, ready to throw it if he saw any more movements, focusing on gathering aura from his surroundings. All of this happened in two very short and tense seconds, and even though it was difficult to focus on so many things at once, he managed to do so easily, since he had more than enough practice. Lucy and Zed turned around and followed his example, the Zorua's claws glowing purple and becoming larger whilst Lucy's fur began emitting sparks and glowing faintly.

Dark saw it coming, the ball of energy reaching him and his body reacted faster than his brain. His paws raising forwards as his illusion started to break, as it happened in that fight when he turned into a Zorua and the training with Luca, and as in those two times, everything seemed to go slower in his eyes. Without him realizing his own Aura concentrated on both upper paws and emanated out of them as his eyes were still on the energy sphere that came to him. He received the sphere on his paws and was dragged backwards. The claws of his feet leaving a mark on the dirt as they tried to stop the bipedal Dark-type, until he was cornered against a tree, keeping his arms stretched.

"Who are you?! Don't do any funny business or else I'll blow you back the way you came your freak!" Eric threatened, on the verge of using another one of his tricks, the drawings on the back of his right paw glowing faintly. He wouldn't hesitate. He couldn't let this thing get the jump on them again.

The sphere should have exploded by now but it kept stable as the full illusion whore off of the Zoroark, his eyes fixated on the attack on his paws. With a loud roar he jerked both hands upwards and the sphere was sent flying skywards, leaving a panting young bipedal fox trying to recover his breath as it finally blew at great heights. Dark fell on his knees, both arms trembling for the effort. " _That was… stronger than any… Even that Lucario's._ " He thought as he breathed, his eyes lost in front of him, pupils almost like dots for the anxiety he had felt on those moments, he had even grow deaf for the entire time he held the move, only now his senses were returning, but he just fell on his rump, not able to stand for the moment. Too tired.

Eric realized who it was, dismissing the white aura sphere in his left paw. "Shit! Dark! What are you doing out here, trying to sneak up on us?! You scared the hell out of us!" He shouted, Lucy quickly relaxing, whilst Zed just stared at the Zoroark kneeling down against the tree, taking a bit longer to dismiss his claws. He really had to get over it… It just wasn't worth his time. It never was to begin with.

"There's a river near." He answered with a tired voice between gasps "I go there to bathe every morning." His answer was shaky, more due to the tiredness than anything, not looking at them when he did nor knowing if they heard him. He raised his head, his shrunk eyes looking at them, to then lay on the Zorua. Not wanting to bother him had put him into a hard situation but the Zoroark would repeat if necessary, he just wanted to avoid causing any problems as much as possible. His arms felt heavy, and where laying limp just in front of him as he kept his shocked stare on the Zorua, not being able to take his sight away. "S-sorry…" He managed to whisper to him and the evolved Dark-type just collapsed against the tree, luckily still awake.

Eric shuddered as fear coursed his body. "Oh Arceus…" He muttered, running over to where Dark was, kneeling besides him. "You alright?" He asked, legitimately worried. He inspected the Zoroark's fur, but found no burn marks on it. The aura sphere hadn't hit him directly, he had seen it fly up into the sky, so… He would have to ask him about that later, now he was more worried about knowing the current state of the Zoroark's health. Dark looked at him for a moment, then down at his arms, still shaking and not being able to move them.

"My arms feel numb." He said. "I can't move them right now." he added after trying a few times to move them, finally calming down and his breath not yet back to normal, but a lot softer now.

"Your arms? Did you try to block the attack?" Eric asked, slowly grabbing one of his arms and looking at it. The Riolu could feel the trembling muscles under the fur and skin but it didn't have any marks on them either, and the bandages were completely fine too… The fighting type was puzzled. "Well anyways… You look like you took a beating… Sorry about that, I thought you were someone else. Can you stand up or do you need help? Sitting around in the middle of the forest isn't exactly the best idea." The Riolu said, extending his paw to the Zoroark, offering him help. Lucy kept switching between the Zoroark who was on the ground and Zed, who was slowly approaching Dark.

"Hey uh… Dark, right? Are you… uh… ok?" The smaller dark type asked, a mixture of shyness but also weariness in his voice. He was having a really hard time doing this, that much was obvious to anyone who saw him, more so to Lucy, but Zed felt like he had to do that. He just couldn't allow him to take hold of his life once more. He kept telling himself that he had to move on from that, that the past was the past. Ironically, that was one of Lucy's favourite catchphrases.

Hearing him, Dark gave him a smile. "Heh… just had to deflect the strongest Aura Sphere I've seen since I came here… but I'm still breathing… just that I can't move my arms for now. Thanks for worrying though." He said, shrugging the whole thing off as if it was nothing. "And… if I've done something to you before… sorry." He said, apologizing to the Zorua for bringing back unwanted memories, lowering his head slightly.

"Hey uh… It's alright, it's just uh… When I saw you reminded me of someone who I'd rather forget and… Yeah I wasn't expecting to see a Zoroark so suddenly. It didn't help that you sort of sneaked up on me… But yeah, you don't have to apologize about anything… In fact I should be the one to apologize for freaking out so badly." Zed confessed, slowly turning to look at Lucy. "You weren't the only one whose feelings I hurt yesterday." He said, Lucy looking at him with hopeful eyes. She was happy to see him like that but… this kind of change from just one day to another… it was strange. She would ask him about it later.

"Don't worry about that on my side at least. I'm glad with just having a chance to sort it out." Dark ended on his side about this topic. "But still I had to apologize… I was using my illusion to avoid you seeing me, this ended on freaking you three out and… well, this." he ended with a chuckle. Eric smirked.

"Yeah, I guess everyone here is to blame for what just happened. Anyways… Can you get up? Don't really want you to spend too much time sitting here." Eric said, his paw directly in front of the Zoroark.

"I can't grab your paw, Eric." the Zoroark answered, looking at him with a smirk. Dark had to rely on another method to stand up since his arms were out cold… so to say. So the Zoroark pressed himself against the tree and pushed with his legs as he started rising, the bark of the tree scratching his back a bit but not much, until he was finally up and trying to balance the weight of his mane and the one of his arms, that were dangling from his shoulders, still visibly shaking but with less force than minutes before.

Eric immediately tried to help him. "Hey woah woah woah! You could've ask for help you know?" He reminded him, looking at the Zoroark, who was taller than him. "Well… why don't you come with us? Just… I'm sorry about that alright? If anyone's got to pay for hurting you or something, then… I'm the one to blame, ok?" The Riolu reminded him, admitting his guiltiness.

"Don't burn yourself so much. That's not good for anyone." Dark simply said, wanting Eric to relax a bit "I gotta be honest here, that was one hell of a powerful move. It was hard to move out of path and it took most of my strength." He added smiling to then look at the three of them. "Well. Let's go back then?" He asked while trying to keep balance between his hanging arms and the mane over his back. Eric nodded, and the four pokémon started moving back towards the house, the Zoroark and the Riolu starting to talk about Dark's capabilities and his strange affinity to aura.

Whilst they talked about this, Lucy walked in front of Zed, trying to call his attention. "Hey, uh… Can we talk for a bit?" She asked. The Zorua sighed, trying to avoid her by walking to the side. He really didn't want to do this again.

"Lucy please, yesterday was bad enough I…" She cut him off, both when he was talking and whilst walking, because she once again moved to be standing in front of him.

"I wasn't going to talk about that, at least not now you dumb mummy!" She exclaimed. The nickname made the Zorua feel annoyed, yet… he was also extremely happy. She only called him that when she was in a good mood with him. It was still annoying that she reminded him of that whole incident, but once more he was actually glad to be her "Dumb Mummy". "I wanted to say that… Back there… you looked like another pokémon. You actually stood up and said what you wanted out loud… And to someone you're sort of afraid of… You actually managed to stand up for yourself! I'm proud of you!" She congratulated the Zorua's courage by nuzzling him affectionately, which made him blush and try to look away.

"I… Uh… It's not too much of a big deal, I… Uh… I thought about it during the night whilst staying awake and… I realized that it just really wasn't worth it. To react that way I mean. It happened a long time ago and I wanted to forget it… If I didn't do anything however, and decided to sneak away from these things like I always do, then… Nothing would've changed. So I just decided to end the whole story before it even began." He excused his strange behaviour. "I know… this is probably really weird, and I'm still shaking, because I really can't do this kind of thing, but I felt as if it was necessary for me to do something about it." He concluded. His mate nodded in agreement with him, though now she was even more worried. Whatever Zed was hiding from her was worrying and traumatizing enough for him to act completely out of character and face the one who had brought back his fears. And he just wouldn't tell her what it was that haunted him so much. She promised to herself, right then and there, that she would try her hardest to get the truth out of the small fox.

* * *

A bit later, when the sun had come out halfway, back at the Corel's dorm, Natalie was still asleep until the light of the new day entered the room. The Eevee stirred awake and finally opened her eyes after a great night's sleep as the one she just had. She looked around, searching for Dark but she found herself alone in the room, the door closed. Waking up, she stretched herself, shuddering in delight at the sound and feeling of joints falling in place after such a night and went to the door. Sitting by the door she gave a jump without even a bit of effort, reaching the knob of the door and stepping on it, her weight pushing it down and allowing her to open the door, the knob returning to place slowly as it had been tightly held so it would return back to position at a slow pace, thus avoiding it being yanked back and probably breaking it, the thing was that it still went down with a lot of ease and when she had asked, Hadrim had explained her that the knobs were specially made for pokémon, they deciding to put them after the twentieth door he and Luca had broken to get out of their rooms some years back, and Daniel had to save money for months and sacrifice summer vacation to afford the change, the resorts on the mechanism had a resistance placed in such a way that it pressed down on the resort when it returned to place while letting it free when it was pushed to open the door. Natalie had thought of that as a curious solution but she could see herself how efficient it was.

The Eevee then exited the room and reached the door with her tail, pushing it enough to close it, taking her tail away just in time so it would not get trapped by the door. After this she went downstairs to the kitchen. She jumped on the table to see if there was anything for breakfast, where she caught Hadrim munching calmly on a pear, bowing at her as greeting since he had his mouth full of fruit. "Morning, Hadrim." She greeted the Espeon back with a smile to then look at the pile of fruits and almost squealing when she saw more than one orange, hastily reaching for one and taking it, her tail wagging like crazy, this eliciting a chuckle from the psychic-type, the sound making her ears lower a bit as the emerald eyed Eevee blushed hard but she still bit down on the orange and cut through the skin with expert skill, cutting it a bit to then use her paws to cut the rest and peel the fruit.

"You know you should wash up first, right?" he reminded her after swallowing, but did not made her do it. Natalie on her part just shrugged.

"Yes, daddy." she mocked with a smirk looking at him after rolling her eyes, making him laugh heartily but neither said anything. Nat just went to the sink, using the same strength she used to reach the knob to jump from the floor to the countertop and then walked to the sink, leaving the water cold she let the water run and then dug her face under the stream, having to put her paws inside the skink, this making her face, mane and forelegs get soaked but she didn't mind at all. After washing a bit her face she retreated and shook herself to then start to rub herself on a towel besides the sink until she was mostly dry, finding the whole ordeal that she had found ashaming at first, now for she it was fun and felt incredibly good to thrash on a towel to dry herself, or even in the carpet. Once dry she went back to the table. For her small body she had pretty good physical strength, being able to jump up and down the countertop at at a meter over the floor. She went back to her orange happily after that and, once finished, Nat approached the window, wanting to see what was Dark doing, knowing that he would be doing something outside as it still was this early in the morning.

However, to her surprise, what she saw was the new group seemingly training. She caught Jake, Nox, Serge and Elly on the backyard, and decided to go out to at least greet them. Hadrim opening the door for her so she could avoid jumping again. "Thanks." she said to him with a smile.

"You're welcome, my little princess." He finally mocked back to her calling him daddy, which made her roll her eyes and huff a bit while giggling slightly and going out. As she went out an icy spike stuck to the dirt in the middle of the backyard, missing Nox, who mocked Jake repeatedly.

"Are you even aiming?!" Nox asked, sticking his tongue out. Elly had decided to sit out on this one, seeing as Jake and Nox were really getting into this "sparring match". The Sneasel was on top of the shed, two icicles floating behind him, both of them pointing in the direction he was looking, which was the fire type.

"As a matter of a fact Nox… I am aiming, in fact, I'm trying to predict where you will be next..." He snapped his fingers as the two spikes flew forwards at separate times, the first one missing Nox, who easily avoided it, but the second one almost hit him directly, gracing his skin and wounding him, blood seeping out. He growled and looked up at the ice type, who was giving him an evil, maniacal grin. "Three to neil. I am victorious." Jake said, coming down from his spot.

Nox roared out. "That's a load of b-"

"Good morning, everyone." The younger Eevee cut him off, rising her voice as much as she could to greet them, the cold air outside making her fur puff up slightly but she didn't mind it one bit, she was clearly happier today for some reason that she did not wanted to find out. "Having a pumping up morning?" She asked them once she was sure she had their attention. Jake and Nox looked at her, Jake greeting her with a bow. However, Nox took advantage of the ice type's distraction to rush at him, tackling the Sneasel. Jake was surprised by this, and didn't manage to react quickly enough as Nox pounced him, knocking him down and pinning him on the ground.

"Hah! Take that!" The cheating fire type shouted. Jake however, wasn't so happy. He pushed Nox away and got back up.

"You miserable creature! You took advantage of my formal manners to attack at my weakest moment! Disgraceful! Disgusting!" He began shouting foul words at Nox, but never saying any real insults.

"Um… Jake? I think anyone would do that if they wanted to get at you for some reason." Natalie said to the Sneasel, not knowing if he was listening to begin with, but she let it out still.

Elly looked at the ice type, her eyes wide open. "Wow… I've never seen him get that mad before… Anyways, hi Natalie. How are you doing?" The bigger Eevee asked politely.

"A good day so far, thanks Elly." The emerald eyed said with a toothy smile on her muzzle.

"Glad to know! Sorry if we surprised you or something, we were having a couple of sparring matches to train. We can't go out of shape now, can we? Who knows what could happen whilst we're here, so we need to prepare for the worst. But… for now it's just friendly fights." She said. Shouting and screaming were heard from the side, Elly sighing. "Most of the time…" She later corrected herself. Natalie just giggled slightly for that to then look around a bit, searching for certain Zoroark that normally stays close to the house, but he was not in sight, still she looked back at Elly.

"True to that. Neither you guys nor we want to get a big belly, right?" She asked. "But… I'm missing a few of you, i think." the younger Eevee commented, tilting her head a bit to the side. Elly nodded.

"Yeah, they're running through the forest right now, and I think Dark went with them, but I'm not too sure on that last part…" She muttered.

"They'll come back eventually. Don't worry." Hadrim said calmly after stepping out of the house and into the backyard, Keeping the door open. "Anyways, have you eaten something? Clara let various fruits on a bowl for any early risers to have a snack before breakfast." he asked them with a calm demeanor, as always, and with that warm… paternal smile he had grown used to display to everyone new since his and Luca's first cub hatched.

"Nope, we haven't eaten anything yet. We didn't know if those fruits were there for someone else and if we could take them. I'll tell everyone else when they come back…" She said, her eyes involuntarily moving to her side, glancing at what Jake and Nox were doing. They were still shouting and bickering whilst Serge took a nap inside of the shed, ignorant to the heated argument that was taking place scarce meters away from him. "Anyways, can you help me break these two up before they actually start killing each other?" Elly asked the two pokémon in front of her.

Natalie looked at the two arguing pokémon and lowered a bit her ears, but stood up, the size difference being even clearer now with the older Eevee near. Hadrim on his part chuckled slightly. "Are they always like this?" the Espeon asked, his tail swaying curiously behind him.

"Actually, this doesn't really happen way too often, Jake is usually a really cool guy..." Elly then hit her muzzle with her paw, managing to hit the same spot where Eric had accidentally hit her that morning. "Arceus… That was horrible." She said, referring to the unintentional pun she had just made. "But yeah, Jake usually stays calm and contains his emotions, but apparently Nox cheating in the sparring match has ticked him off…" Elly trailed off, her eyes widening at some of the things Jake was shouting at Nox. Half of those words she was sure the fire type, nor the smaller Eevee could understand, but she was certain that Hadrim understood them, and knew exactly why she was so alarmed.

"Wow… that's some language." Natalie surprisingly beat Hadrim on saying that, her ears catching a lot of words that she would rather forget that very instant, let alone repeat herself. Elly looked at her, really surprised when she heard her comment. She may have looked young, but she was certainly much more mature and intelligent than her appearance lead to believe. "By the way, Elly… Unintended pun?" The younger asked with a smirk looking at the older. The Eevee groaned, nodding. She really hated those kinds of jokes.

"But, as Natalie said, anyone that is out for him will do the same." Hadrim repeated the Eevee's words from earlier, trying to ignore his ears on the voice of the Ice and Dark type.

Elly rose an eyebrow, then realized she hadn't explained the rules of the sparring matches. "Oh.. yeah about that… Nox actually broke the rules. He's really just being a sore loser at the moment. The matches last for a number of hits. You have to dodge everything your opponent does, but if you're hit three times you lose. Nox got his four times actually, but Jake forgave him one, and when Nox was hit one more time and I guess he didn't really agree with it." The Eevee guessed.

"Oh… I see… Seems like Nox doesn't like to lose and… Jake just likes to fully stick with rules." The adult commented "Reminds me of someone." He chuckled lightly.

"Who reminds you of who? Anyways… are you willing to help me or are you going to do the sensible thing and stay out of the way of those two?" She asked them again.

"A son of mine that is not at home for the time being." The Espeon said to answer her question to then look at the still bickering duo, standing and starting to approach them. "I'll help, but you do the talking in this case." He said to Elly.

"Alright… I was just asking in case… You can put them to sleep if it comes down to it, right? Well… at least Nox." She said, starting to walk over to Nox and Jake. She shouted at them, calling their attention. "What are you two arguing about? You look like two cubs fighting over a toy!" She shouted.

Jake pointed at Nox. "He has broken the rules! He attacked me when the match was over, and not only that, but took advantage of my distraction with Natalie to attack from behind! He must be punished!" Jake exclaimed.

"That's bullcrap! You were the one that broke the rules first with your ice spikes! Elly said that we couldn't use projectiles or anything of the sort, yet there you go jumping on the shed and throwing icicles! What am I supposed to do in that situation?!" Nox replied to the ice type's accusation.

"We were having a realistic sparring match Nox! Projectiles were allowed between us because we can use them but Elly will not because…" Jake bit his lip immediately and stood straight, placing his hands behind his back and staring at Elly, who merely looked up. The Sneasel sudden change making Nat look at him with curiosity, her eyes narrowing as if she was trying to see his intentions or something, Hadrim on the other paw, kept his own cool and waited in silence a few paws behind in case he was needed. "Elly does not have any long ranged attacks, thus explaining why we could not use projectiles against her." The ice type quickly corrected himself, clearly nervous because of something.

"When did you guys say that?!" Nox asked, now livid, his voice cracking.

"Right between the two matches. Don't you remember? Jake asked if you could use projectiles in this fight, and I said yes as long as you both agreed and you didn't do them whilst looking at the house. Another COMPLETELY different issue here, Nox, is that you were with your head in the clouds when we asked that and just answered "Uh… Yeah sure" instead of actually listening to what we were saying, so if there's anyone here to blame…" Elly rose a paw and hit Nox's chest lightly. "Is you." She concluded her scolding, Nox sighing and looking at the ground.

Jake stood straight, looking down at the fire type, prideful that he had achieved victory without resorting to such vile and devious tactics. "I have won this match… And I believe we have all had more than enough training for the morning… Do you agree, Elly?" The Sneasel suggested to the normal type.

"Leaving when you are winning? That's a bit lame." Those were Natalie's words to the Ice type. "Do you even know how to win?" She asked him directly. "He missed the new rules, okay, that's stupid. But you could also have told him during the match so you two were on equal terms. Wait! Isn't that considered cheating as well?" She exposed, defending the Fire type a bit but acknowledging he should have paid attention.

"It is not our problem he didn't listen to us when we were explaining the rules. _Ignorantia juris non excusat_." He said in latin. "The same applies here." He sentenced afterwards.

"Yet you can tell the rule to those that clearly don't know it so they have the same chances that you do." She argued, deciding to stop there. Hadrim looking at her with a face that roared "surprise" since he himself had not understood what the Sneasel had said.

"We already told… You're not making sense. If you wish to fight against a cheater, then you are more than welcome to try your luck. I do not consider him to be worth my time, and instead would prefer to invest my time into something more productive, like trying to learn how to read human." The Sneasel answered, turning around and walking towards the entrance of the house. "I-"

"Not worth your time, huh?" Natalie resumed, cutting him off not interested to know more. "As a partner too?" She spat almost on his face, not even looking at him as he passed her side.

"Natalie?" Hadrim warned her once and she lowered her ears, but did not apologize for her words.

Jake stood still, evaluating the Eevee's words, clenching a fist. He turned around and walked back towards her again, raising an eyebrow. She was starting to get on his nerves. "What do you wish to accomplish by asking me these questions? To trigger an emotional response and have me continue a fight which I have already won, at least in our ruleset? Or do you want me to express my honest opinion on what I think of Nox at this very moment? I will warn you however, that the latter he already knows fairly well." He said, looking at the fire type, who rolled his eyes.

"As if it wasn't crystal clear." She said to him about his second part. "And… what I wanted to accomplish with it... Well, figure it out yourself, Mr intelligent." She said, still not looking at him, her eyes on the glare Hadrim was throwing at her as she stood there. " _Just… how can a team work together like that?_ " She thought, saving the question for herself, since her argument was only with Jake, not with all the others, while hoping she'll know one day.

Jake looked at her, irritated. He was wearing a look that Elly hadn't seen on his face ever before, the Eevee slightly worried. "I may have a great intellect, but I can not read minds, Natalie. But that's besides the point... I'll have you know, miss Natalie, that this pokémon deserves every single last bit of spite he receives because of his reckless and uncooperative attitude during critical missions. Not only that, but his behaviour is downright despicable. The only reason that you have not been target of his poor sexual advances is that Hadrim explicitly asked us to keep him from doing so. And finally, he, and I repeat, was the first one to break the rules and attack me once our duel was over. And that, is dishonorable. And whether you agree with me or not, I look down upon those who resort to such tactics when it is not a life or death situation where defeat can mean certain death." The Sneasel concluded

"Well, Jake. I also hate cheaters and perverts, I assure you that. Even if he yesterday had tried anything it would have ended really bad. Also cooperation in a team is important, yeah, but sometimes there has to be someone that just jumps into the moment, be it a good decision or a terrible mistake, the fact is that this one did it. For pride or to try and help or even both at the same time. Sometimes those crazy ones that lunge at danger headfirst are the ones that give enough time for those that come after to actually come up with a plan in spot, or a good enough distraction to take down your foes. Hell, you can bring up a lot of situations just for being the hotheaded impulsive idiot of the group!" She said to the Sneasel, trying to expose him to some cases that she had mostly read on books but this fact she silenced it. "The world is full of idiots, cheaters, sore losers and hot headed guys. There is a lot of different people that think differently on a lot of things. I don't know you, Jake, but I'd rather not live in a world where everyone is the same. That would be plain out boring. Everyone being the same with the exact same rules. No one to make a mistake and learn from it and try to be better. No one curious about anything, no one daring to do the unthinkable and risk making the greatest mistake of their life or the best choice they had made in it." She said, exposing her thought process to him.

"Foolish… Such a world would be ideal… A world where there are no more wars or conflicts, where all are united to achieve one single goal… and pokémon are known to have been able to do so. I have beared witness to a world that came to existence due to a series of mistakes that cost the lives of millions, and I know what would have happened if everyone had done what they should do at the precise time…" He calmed down, realizing he was getting too emotional and took a deep breath. He relaxed and tried to think on what the Eevee was saying. "However, it is in our nature to be contradictory, and that is something I simply can not change." He looked at Elly and Hadrim. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I will be inside for the remainder of the morning unless you wish me to stay." He said.

"And you just exposed the paradox yourself." Natalie said to him, whether he answered or not wasn't her concern, she wasn't going to stop him or make him talk after all.

"I have not exposed any paradoxes! You are the one that is prolonging this conversation, Natalie. If you wish to live in a world where all those who surround will resort to breaking the rules the first chance they get, where pokémon fight for reasons they do not understand, causes they do not believe in… then so be it. I will not argue with those that deny the truth. And besides, it was never my purpose to change your opinion." He ended, walking away without waiting for either Hadrim or Elly to say anything, leaving the older Eevee dumbfounded.

"I know that world... " Natalie said simply, not caring if he heard or not. "I was born in one like that." With that last she just went to the living room, climbed on the couch, laid on it and curled into a ball. Her mood was good that morning, even arguing with the Sneasel, but those last words had crushed it to dust… and she was to blame for pushing so far… or so she thought at the moment. Elly rose an eyebrow as she heard these last few words, Natalie disappearing from her view as she wandered from the kitchen to the living room.

"Well then… that was… interesting." She looked at Hadrim. "Sorry for Jake, he, uh… He's kind of strange in some areas, so to say… I know there's no way to justify the things he just said but please… Just, let him be for the time being. He is being really emotional right now, which is honestly surprising, and is probably saying stuff he doesn't mean… Either way, I'll tell you why he is like that one day. Now…" She turned to face Nox. "Have you learned the lesson, Nox?" She asked.

The fire type groaned and rolled his eyes. "Sure sure I have… And I'm supposed to be the hot headed guy… jeez, he's an even bigger egocentric than I am." He said, turning around and walking towards the shed where the Pidgeot was.

"Don't worry I won't hold it against him." Hadrim said to Elly. "No one's past is the same as another, so there is no point in judging anyone without knowing it. We all had it hard in different ways… with the exception of some lucky ones." He stated, sitting down "For Natalie… if you wanna know you'll have to ask her, sorry." He ended it there. "Now… you can either go to the river a few kilometers in that direction," The Espeon said to them pointing with his tail towards the forest, in the general direction Dark had gone earlier. "Or if you want to have a warm bath you can go bathe in the bathroom. But you do need a bath after so much training." He reminded the Eevee, who nodded in response.

"Yeah… but I'd rather wait for Eric and the rest to come back… I want to talk with him about what just happened… He knows how to deal with Jake and whatever problems arise in the team. He's really good with talking with pokémon and solving problems." She said, proud of her mate's skills. The Espeon nodded to her calmly with a smile.

Nox meanwhile sat down next to the apparently sleeping Pidgeot. "What an idiot… I really don't know what to think about that guy. Sometimes he congratulates you and others he's just an ass." The Houndour muttered to himself. Serge opened an eye, smiling.

"Well, you did get him pissed off, so what did you expect? I've never seen Jake angry to begin with… and I honestly don't know if it's good or bad that he got so emotional all of a sudden." Serge got up from the ground, stretching his wings. "I'm leaning towards good though." He added a bit later.

Nox rolled his eyes. "Well whatever, I don't want to talk about him anymore… Instead, I want to ask you for help Serge… who do you think is better? Emily or Luna?" He asked.

The bird looked at him, raising an eyebrow, then burst out laughing. "Oh of course it would be a question like that… Well… In that case, if you want my professional opinion… You should go for Emily right now. She looks innocent, but I think that girl knows a whole lot about love… and I mean the kind of love you have to clean up." The bird said, Nox evaluating his words.

"Well… yeah she sounded like she knew what she was saying yesterday… And she looks cute too, but…" Nox shook his head. "Nah, I'll listen to you. I'm going to go for it… If I'm lucky I'll be able to get some!" He shouted, his hopes refueled. Serge smiled and looked out of the house, seeing the sun was already rising.

"Well… I think it's about time I actually do something today… Maybe I should fly for a while and explore?" He pondered, heading out of the wooden shed, Elly finally noticing his presence.

"About time Serge! You've spent all morning in there sleeping, and you've missed our training session!" She scolded him, the bird rolling his eyes.

"I had to stay awake last night, give me a break Elly. Besides, after breakfast and I'm going to fly off and explore our surroundings, see what interesting things there are around here." He said, looking at Hadrim. "Think you can give me some directions? Any interesting landmarks for tourists and all of that?" Serge asked.

Hadrim thought for a bit, thinking on a few places he personally liked, both from his past with his pack and new places he discovered while under Kaiser's care before he even became one himself. "Well there are a few places I can tell you but… They are neither for this hour nor time of the year." He said to the avian pokémon, but since Serge still wanted to know, Hadrim mentioned some places like a meadow full of flowers that simply looks beautiful during spring while it remained ever so peaceful on the other seasons. He also talked about a cliff over the forest with an astounding view during dusk, and inform him about the view over the highest mountain of the island, the peak of the which reached over cloud level. The Espeon mostly told him about sightseeing places since he was more of a natural tourist himself and having lived his entire life in that island he knew of a few places that could catch not only the eye but also the breath of the visitor, were them to be visited at the right time of the day or the year. About urban tourism… it was hard for the psychic to tell him of good places, since he mostly went to the hospital with Ichiro, or to help with the groceries with Luca and Clara, or even if Daniel needed some extra lifting power on his work to speed up the construction of a building. "Luca might be more helpful than me with urban tourism. You might want to ask her when she's awake." He advised the Pidgeot, who managed to keep up with all of the information that Hadrim had suddenly dumped on his head.

Just then, sounds were heard coming from the forest, and from between the trees they saw four shapes emerge. "So wait… you can control aura? How?" Eric asked, surprised to hear that the Zoroark had a strong affinity for aura. Elly looked at her mate.

"Hey, about time you came back! Where were you?" She asked, but Eric didn't respond immediately. He was focused on talking with Dark.

"Well I don't know." Dark answered himself. "All I've managed to do is what you saw before and… when I concentrate I can feel it around, but not actually see it. Regarding moves I haven't been able to summon any that requires it so far, and I've tried to… I just… I think I'm missing something on the whole ordeal." He said shaking his head a bit. He was holding a branch to test how his hands could grab, since he was able to move them again, but they started to shake like leaves in Autumn when he tried to rise them over his shoulder's height and refused to go further up, so far he could hold the branch but no one has tried to take it from him and see if he can keep it. "And the whole deflecting… it's actually the third time I've done it." He ended.

"Hmmm… That was an Aural Return. It's a helpful ability, since you're grabbing someone's aura attack with your own aura and returning it to them. However… it's way too dangerous, as you've already seen. Still, you sound like you could actually control Aura Vision too, but you say you're missing something… Have you tried feeling your surroundings and trying to get aura from around you? Or is there something that just doesn't let you accept your own aura to begin with? Your aura and body have to be ready to be able to use aura abilities, then you're able to control, not only your own energy, but also whatever energy you can obtain from what is around you. Remember, aura is everything." Eric reminded the Zoroark, reciting some of Virkov's lessons.

Zed chuckled as he heard those words, Lucy walking over to Elly. "We're back. How are things over here, did you train lots?" The electric type asked.

Elly thought about it and nodded. "Eeeeh… Kinda yeah, we did some stuff… By the way… what are those two geeking out about?" The Eevee asked, Lucy looking at the two bipedal pokemon and shrugging.

"We ran into Dark in the forest, Eric mistook him for... that thing, and attacked before asking. Dark somehow deflected it and we waited until he felt better and we made our way back here. They've been talking about Dark's aura affinity the whole time." Zed explained.

"It's not really that interesting…" Lucy commented. The Shinx and the Zorua had been really bored whilst making their way back to the house whilst those two were talking.

"What attack did he deflect? Is he okay?" Hadrim asked, a sudden worry in his eyes looking at the talking Zoroark, who seemed to be just fine.

"An aura sphere that Eric made, the size of an apple. It wasn't really anything special, but… I think Eric overdid it a little." The Zorua told the Espeon. "He said that he couldn't feel his arms well, but now he seems to be ok." He added. The Espeon let out a sigh relief for those words to then sit down.

"Luca told me once that with the martial training Dark did back at his... first home he had something with the aura akin to a novice Riolu in the matter." He commented having to think fast before he said something that was not up to him to say.

"I know that last bit." Dark said calmly nodding but thinking on the rest. "Did you see what happened with my aura when I did that Return?" He asked the Riolu curious, maybe he had seen something he was unaware off.

"Well… I was really focused on building up aura whilst you grabbed my sphere but… My teacher, a Lucario that taught me everything I know about aura, told me of this ability. It allows aura users to use their own aura to grab the energy attacks of other pokémon and handle the in whichever way he wants. However, it makes the attack unstable and depending on the user's capacity it could backfire… And I think that's sort of what happened to you back there. You took on more than you could handle." Eric deduced.

"I thought inestable energy can blow up faster than that." Dark commented, remembering he had time to force the move out of its path before it did exactly what he said. "Onto another topic… How you ready the body for that?" He asked curious.

"For my aura attacks? Well… to me it's become second nature at this point but… All I do is close my eyes and feel the aura around me and my own. I focus and I let it flow into me… It's sort of like meditation, you have to relax and accept yourself and your energy to then be able to control it. Every single part of your consciousness has to agree to allow the aura flow into you and be able to use your powers. There cannot be any doubt in you, or else you just won't be able to focus. Do you understand?" Eric explained it as best as he could, but he really couldn't explain it that well. It was something really natural for him at that point, and didn't know if it was any different for other pokémon that didn't have a normal affinity to pure aura. Even then, he remembered Virkov telling him those were the basics: To accept one's self and their aura, and from there to borrow the energy of what is around you or use your own.

"I think I do." Dark nodded, willing to try a different approach to the meditation once his arms were fully awake again, but for now he needed to keep them resting. "I just need to relax, concentrate and feel around, right? More or less?" He asked.

"Well… not relax, but it's more like concentrating and focusing on the aura, but relaxing makes it easier to focus, so if you need to practice… You can do it whilst meditating or something." The Riolu suggested.

"I'll try an idea i have later. We're back." Dark said, pointing at an annoyed Eevee. Eric looked the way he was pointing and found an angry Elly looking at him. His eyes went wide open like plates.

"Oh uh… Hi Elly!" He waved at her, the Eevee walking up to him.

"Welcome back! Did you get lost or something? Also, I've been sitting here for ten minutes waving at you and you didn't even bother to look over to me!" Elly shouted, the Riolu backing away. Dark decided to go around and stay away from them, not wanting to get caught in the possible fire.

"I uh… Sorry I…" He tried to talk, but Elly just wouldn't let him, scolding the Riolu continuously.

"You're impossible Eric." She sentenced, scoffing and looking away from him. Eric rubbed the back of his head, not really sure what to do, embarrassed that Elly was scolding him in front of everyone else.

"Uh… I'm sorry… Is there any way I can make it up to you, Elly?" He asked, trying to get the Eevee to forgive him. Elly turned around and gave him a wide smile, just then the Riolu realizing he had been played the whole time, his arms slumping down and giving her an annoyed glare. "Really Elly?" He asked her, the Eevee giggling uncontrollably.

"You're so easy to trick Eric… And referring to your question… Yes, you can…" She said, walking up to him and getting on her hind legs, placing her front paws on his chest and leaning towards his face, planting a kiss on his lips. His eyes went wide open, everyone around them looking at the couple, surprised. She broke away and chuckled. "You didn't give me a good day kiss this morning… so now it's your turn to compensate!" She said, smiling. She took a breath… and realized for the first time the smell that was coming off from the Riolu. "Oi… You really ran a lot, didn't you?" She asked, backing off from him. The Riolu groaned, Zed and Lucy bursting into laughter. Hadrim was speechless at first but then smiled seeing them, Dark on his part had a huge smirk on his muzzle for the whole situation.

"Tell me something I don't know… and besides, you're also sweating Elly. We all have to take a bath." He said. She didn't try to smell herself, because she knew he was right, but the Eevee groaned for another reason.

"Everyone but Serge, because the lazy bastard didn't do anything with the excuse of being too tired, and promised that he would fly off later and explore. I can't believe him…" Talking about Serge reminded her of what had happened a few minutes ago. "Oh, that reminds me... " Before she could finish however, she was interrupted by a new voice.

"Breakfast is ready everyone!" Luca called from the window of the kitchen, the delicious smell of pancakes reaching their nostrils. Dark approaching, ears standing straight up as his nose caught the scent and went inside in a haste, losing the grip on the branch he had ut keeping balanced.

"Last one's a land turtle!" he said as we went inside and took one of the four chairs around the kitchen's table. He wasn't the only one to rush to the kitchen as soon as Luca called them all, Natalie had been smelling the pancakes all the time the Lucario was cooking them and even when she jumped from the couch and ran, from above there could be heard more running, until two more Eevee and a human kid joined in the kitchen to the ones that where there already. Talk about a wake up call...

Eric looked at Elly. "Alright… I think we should leave that bath for later and go see what they have for breakfast… I'm starving." He said, the Eevee agreeing with him. "Come on guys, let's…" He turned around to look at Zed and Lucy, but they were gone already, dashing towards the kitchen entrance. Elly giggled and Eric sighed, the duo walking towards the house. Whilst heading there, Elly informed him of what happened with Nox and Jake, and later on when Natalie had jumped into the conversation.

"Jake got angry? Has hell frozen over or something?" He asked, Elly glaring at him, unamused by his pun. He chuckled as he Elly rose a paw and playfully hit his left arm, sonriendo también. "Either way… I'll have to talk with Jake about it, and… I guess I need to explain a few things to Natalie." He pondered, heading into the house right after Elly.

Inside of the house, Jake muttered to himself constantly. He was extremely angry, and that foolish Eevee hadn't helped his mood either. She would rather live in a world filled with dishonest and cruel pokémon rather than a perfect society where emotions were secondary and everyone acted in a logical and reasonable way, avoiding all conflicts and bringing about world peace? Such foolishness… Then again, she too was emotional. He walked through the kitchen and headed to the living room. He halted as he realized what he was doing. He was angry. That wasn't like him at all.

He tried to steel himself and evaluate the words he had said whilst arguing with Natalie. His reasoning wasn't flawed, or at least he thought so himself… However, Natalie's point of view wasn't either. A world with emotions was a far more interesting and… "fun" world, rather than the one he envisioned. He spited those who made mistakes, yet he understood that if no mistakes were made, nobody would learn from them… in fact, his own existence was thanks to a series of mistakes that various pokémon had made. Either way, he wasn't going to let that bother him too much. Luca's shout to make everyone go have breakfast had made him go to that very spot, and he decided to sit down with the rest and enjoy the breakfast, keeping himself from thinking about those things.

After breakfast, which consisted of pancakes with one of the three: chocolate, orange and strawberries syrup and a little accident Eric had with the syrup bottle, in which he ended with his head covered in chocolate and having to take a bath sooner than he wanted, Ichiro proposed them all to go have a stroll to the town's park, wanting to get out of the house and have some fresh air after a few days not going anywhere and just playing on his console. All of them thinking it was a good plan, both for relaxing and knowing a bit more of the place and exploring.

Everyone was now taking turns to take baths. Eric had already taken one before, and he was sitting in the living room, looking at one of the few books that was written in pokespeech. It told the story about some strange hybrid between human and pokémon… It was enjoyable, albeit he found the fusion of species a little strange and somewhat disturbing. He was waiting for the rest to get ready to head out to the park, and as far as he knew almost everyone was ready. It was up to Ichiro to call them.

The human took his own time, since he also wanted to bath before going out of the house and after all the new group of pokémon having to learn to use the bathtube and bathing themselves… somehow. He had to wait for thirty minutes for the water to get warm again before he could take his bath and be ready. Once done and dressed he took his keys and. "Everyone, we are leaving now!" he called to gather them at the entrance of the house. Hadrim was there already since he wanted to go to keep an eye on everyone, he was outside, laying on the roof of the porch, waiting for everyone to get out.

* * *

The walk to the park was uneventful, Ichiro just having asked them all to stay near him as to avoid possible trainers mistaking them for wilds, which technically they were but… well that's out of topic. They reached the town, which consisted of a housing district of various streets of individual houses, and a commercial district where they found vendor's' posts on the streets, the town's local shopping center, some twenty four convenience store, the Town's Hospital, being the biggest building of the town, and a big building, of only one floor but still big, with a natural decoration in the front consisting of various rocks, one very big, and two some trees, one of the which grew up on top of the big rock while the other grew directly from the ground, the two big trees being on both sides of the entrance and their branches forming an arc over it. It was when they walked past this building that Ichiro stopped and looked at it, sighing after a bit in defeat and then finally reaching the park. This consisting on various areas with a playground for kids with swings and other playing things, even a playhouse in the form of a castle. It had a set of steps that allowed one to get on a tower, which then connected to the second tower through a hanging bridge with ropes, and on the other tower was a straight slide that lead down to the ground again and another slide, more resemblant to a tube which twisted around the tower, much longer than the straight one, and that descended to the dirt as well.

The adjacent area was a sitting and snacking area with a food and drinks post where the parents could stay, enjoy a good snack or drink or both sitting in the tables disposed by the post which were of hardwood, while watching their offspring enjoy. In both areas pokémon and humans could be seen, having fun or enjoying a calmer morning; Other area was for skaters, where one could see ramps and half tubes amongst other things for acrobatics or other tricks with boards or skates and where some people was doing diverse tricks.

Yet another place was a fenced playground for owners to take their non-pokémon pets there, but as always there was some that took their pokémon there with a collar and a leash, this pokémon were kept tied while even the dogs in that place where freely running around inside the fence, the pokemon looking at them with… envy, resigning to stay where they were, and without a chance of protesting. These people normally being avoided by the rest unless the others were of equal thoughts. When they passed there even one of them dared to tell Ichiro that he should put muzzles and leashes on everyone. It was needed a lot of willpower from various parts to ignore that bastard and Hadrim told all the group that came for the first time to do their best to ignore the comment, his voice firm and clearly irritated even if he tried to remain unaffected, saying that if they responded they will only give the man more reasons to say it.

Eric and the rest of his team were giving the humans around them curious looks, still amazed to see so many humans around them, and couldn't understand why they kept on saying those things. Either way, some of them, like Nox or Lucy were getting annoyed by their comments, but Ichiro told some words that helped them calm down, whilst others like Jake or Elly were keeping themselves from giving them murderous glares, whilst Serge just smiled above all of them, looking down at those ignorants. Dark clenched his paws, wanting to punch that smily face off that bastard but held himself as his claws, exposed by irritation, scraped the cement floor of the path. The human boy himself had a hard time keeping his very needed cool after the words the man said, even when the man got told by the animal owners but just ignored them like the sob he was. " _Ugh… those… fucking imbecils! They could get lost and never come back for all i care! Bastards."_ Dark thought to himself, barely holding back those words.

The next area was a big plateau with resting areas and some sections for an outdoors gym, running tracks and some pitches and courts while on the other side was a more relaxing place with a water fountain flowing surrounded by gardens where people were either sitting or walking around, alone, with company of other humans or pokémon or their pets. Jake looked at all of these strange creatures, some of which reminded him of pokémon, yet were definitely not, as he had tried to communicate with a furry quadruped dog… and it just barked at him whilst panting and giving him a strange look with those hollow eyes, which honestly made Jake feel really uncomfortable.

And the last area was an area filled with trees, which was their destination. Ichiro walking past the football pitches and basketball courts and reaching the final stair to get to this area, which was sort of a mini forest, done mostly for… well allow people to have a more intimate place in that park to feel more alone, and it also served as the perfect playground for playing hide and seek in the case humans and playful hunting in a pokémon's case. And there was a little clearing to a side, with little trees on it for picnics or simply lay down and relax. Ichiro stopped there and sat on the grass. "You guys can do whatever you want now, but don't leave the park, okay? Hadrim will call you when we are about to go back." he said to everyone, Dark, Natalie, Shade, Radius and Luna nodding as they started to discuss about what to play.

Eric looked at his friends. "Well… what do we do?" He asked, trying to come up with something interesting to do.

"I wish to explore the park and see what creatures I come across. Those "animals" as Ichiro defined them, have caught my interests… They remind me of primal pokémon, only… not as deadly." Jake said, Elly shivering at the thought.

"Eh… I think I'll pass on that one. I really want to go check out that fountain though. Anyone want to come?" She asked, everyone, including Jake, agreeing. She looked at them, raising an eyebrow. "Wow… we really don't know what to do, eh?" She inquired, everyone either nodding or saying "yes".

"It's the first time we've ever come to one of these places… it's kind of overwhelming really. Like… Surrounded by all this new stuff… I dunno, I don't really want to go on my own." Lucy said, inching closer to Zed, the Zorua and Nox agreeing with her.

"Hmmm…" Eric thought for a while, then looked at Dark and company. "Hey, what are you guys going to do?" He asked the other group.

The group of younger pokémon turning to look at them, taking a moment to register the question. "We are going to play hunt in the trees." Shade said smiling at them, being the first to answer. "You guys wanna join?" She asked them wagging her tail.

"Hunt? What is that game?" Emily asked, getting excited to learn about this new game. Dark's group explained what "Hunt" was. It was hide and seek, mixed in with tag. One pokémon had to find everyone else and sneak up and touch them before they ran away.

"Hmm… sounds like an interesting game… It sounds like a good way of training too. Can we join you?" Jake asked.

"Sure, why not? That way, it will be more fun! Now I'll be right back…" Dark said, walking into the trees, coming back shortly after with small twigs in his claws. "Ok… now we're all going to draw a twig, and whoever draws the shortest is the hunter." He explained how the selection process worked, and everyone prepared themselves to grab one. One by one, they all pulled out a twig until all were out, except one… and the shortest one ended up being Eric's. By a long shot.

"Oh great… Of course I get to be the hunter right off the bat… By the way, if I find someone what do I have to do exactly?" He asked anyone from the other group.

"If you find someone you have to catch them, and after you touch them and say "You're a hunter!" they join you to help hunt down everyone else, so the more pokémon you find, the more hunters there will be." Luna explained.

"Alright… I guess I have to turn around and wait until you guys hide or something like that, right?" The Riolu asked, Radius nodding. The jackal sighed and turned around, closing his eyes. He then began to count, Natalie telling him to count to sixty, in other words, give them a full minute to hide. The Riolu slowly counted down, hearing everyone behind him disperse, already knowing it wasn't going to be an enjoyable experience… "Sixty!" He shouted out loud, looking around to see if anyone was near him. It didn't seem like it at first glance, the Riolu sighing. "How old are you Eric? 19 almost? Nineteen years old and after saving the world... and playing these games. Well, never really got a chance to do so, or at least one that you remember… so make the most of it." He stood there in silence. "Why am I talking to myself?" He asked himself, now confused. He shook his head, getting those thoughts out of his head and instead trying to think of this as a training exercise, to try and find his companions and hunt them down.

"Alright… let's do this." He muttered to himself, looking around. He guessed most of them had headed into the forest… but some had probably decided to stay away from there to try and fool him… And he was correct. He decided to walk over to the fountain, and lo and behold, he found Jake walking around and trying to talk with whatever came across his path that wasn't a pokémon. People looked at him, confused, as he tried to talk with dogs, cats and other animals. Eric simply walked over to him and placed a paw on his shoulder.

"You're a hunter now." The Riolu said, his presence surprising the Sneasel. Jake's memory recovered yet again and he remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

"Curses… I forgot. These animals are so distracting… how can beings without a conscience be integrated into society so easily? Isn't there fear of them going awry?" He asked. Eric looked around him and saw one thing that basically answered the Sneasel's questions.

"Leashes. That's how." Eric simply stated, pointing out all of the cords around the animal's necks. "Since they don't have a conscience, they really are creatures that were born to eat, grow and mate, then die." He recited _his_ words the way he remembered them, feeling sick in his stomach as he did so. "They've never had a conscience to begin with, so they can't think. If they don't know freedom then how can they ask for it?" He reminded the Sneasel, who evaluated the fighting type's words.

"True…" They began walking around the park, looking for anyone that was hiding outside of the forest. "These beings did not have the chance to claim their rights as living creatures… and since they can not speak, nor… well, think, they can not defend themselves from enslavement. Then again… do they even realize they are enslaved?" Jake pondered, the Riolu besides him shrugging.

"Honestly, I don't want to think about it too much. The thought alone of just… not thinking scares me." He said, then saw pokémon that were walking around, with leashes around their necks as well. "And those… pokémon… those terrify me." He said, Jake looking at a Lillipup who was walking behind it's "owner" happily, with a leash forcing it to stay besides the woman.

"Those pokémon… Probably know no better than that. They look around and see us, yet do not know that the way we live is much better… this is an odd world. It makes me fear the times when humans and pokémon coexisted in our world, long long ago. This lack of… free will, is slightly terrifying." Jake concluded.

Eric rose an eyebrow and looked at the ice type. "Well now… You're defending free will? You, of all pokémon?" Eric asked, the Sneasel responding with a smirk.

"I know, it is strange for me to think like that… after all, very rarely does a creature that follows nature's rules make a mistake. It is free will which makes us commit mistakes… yet I know that I do not wish to live enslaved. I have seen that kind of world with my eyes, and although it sounds good on paper… when put into practice it is much less appealing." Jake said, him and the Riolu deciding to head towards the forest. They guessed that everyone was hiding there.

"Agreed… by the way, do you think that me using Aura Vision would be considered cheating?" Eric asked, Jake's face immediately turning much bleaker. Eric smiled, however. "So it is true. You don't like it when others cheat, don't you?" The Riolu asked.

The Sneasel humphed. "Who does? To begin with, cheating is both dishonorable and disgraceful to one's prestige, and even if they're not caught, it should weigh heavily upon their consciousness and suffer for doing so… Unless, however, it is a matter of life or death." Jake said.

Eric laughed out loud as soon the ice type said this. "I see now… So there are exceptions to your rule, eh? I'm guessing that Nox cheating after the sparring match this morning wasn't of your liking… And by the way, yes, Elly told me of your tantrum with Natalie." The Riolu confessed, the ice type looking at the ground, ashamed.

"I am sorry, I… I let my emotions carry my words. It.. it is not something I intended to do. Worry not, however, because I will not let this happen ever again." He promised.

"Woah woah, slow down… Look, I didn't mean it like that. What I want to say is that it's really weird to hear that you got angry in an argument, but… at the same time it's good, because you're finally starting to break out of that shell you put yourself in." The Riolu explained, Jake listening to his words carefully. "I know what Natalie told you, and in all honesty… I think nobody, asides from me and Elly, is capable to criticizing you properly. We both saw the world you grew up in, and you explained us your reasoning behind your philosophy… and all things considered, it's understandable. However… the world is not like that anymore, and you live with pokémon that are emotional, that think about other things before survival or the collective well being… They're individuals that… have free will, and because they have free will…" Eric stopped there, letting the Sneasel finish that sentence for him.

"They make mistakes and do what they want." Jake concluded. "I… understand that, but…" He looked around, trying to find someone that was hiding behind the bushes or the trees. "What am I supposed to learn from this conversation? All of what you've told me to this very moment I already knew." He admitted.

The jackal chuckled. "You have to take into account that people don't think the same way you do. You're logical, but the rest of us are driven by our emotions most of the time. You consider those things secondary, and that's why people jump down your throat all the time… But I think it's that way because you really don't know better. You were forced to suppress your emotions because of your circumstances, so you still gotta learn how to properly express yourself. To be honest, sometimes you come off as a really cold pokémon.. no pun intended, but I think you're much more than just that." Eric said, giving him a reassuring smile. "So the lesson here is twofold… One, you have to learn to respect the opinions and beliefs of others as long as they don't suppose harm to you, no matter how stupid or illogical they may seem to you, remember, one's freedom ends where another's begins; and two, you have to work on how to express yourself in front of others… In the words of Serge: Try to live a little." He said, quoting one of his own companions, giving the Sneasel an example that he wasn't the only one in their group that wanted to help the ice type carry out a better life.

"Very well then… From now on, I will try to be more like you… and maybe someday I will understand why you appreciate emotions so much." Jake said, both hopeful and a little… anxious. He knew what would come with those types of emotions… but he believed he would be ready when the time came.

"Good! Now… Let's find those guys before we leave! We've done more than enough fooling around… now it's time to switch gears and start hunting… for real." Eric said with a smirk. Jake nodded, agreeing with his plan, and the duo began running around the forest as silently as they could.

Natalie was looking around, her ears and nose working on what she could not see, moving through the forest, trying to not stay hiding in the same place all the time. Stopping for a moment on each cover while she tried to know where the hunter was so she could go to a secure place. This had her on edge, alert and listening, using all her senses to smell or hear anyone approaching.

However, she couldn't really smell what didn't have a distinctive smell to begin with. Jake had had a brilliant idea to keep themselves from being found by their prey through smelling. Jake covered his entire body in dirt and mud, as well as used some leaves to stick them to the brown mixture all over his body. What that accomplished, or at least what Jake said, was to hide their smells underneath the layer of natural smells, making it harder for others to smell them. However, Eric hadn't used this… camouflage, finding it completely ridiculous.

The duo kept looking for pokémon in the forest, but didn't find anyone for what seemed like half an hour, until out of the corner of their eye they saw something brown sneaking between the trees. Jake's eyes immediately caught sight of it, the Sneasel raising an arm, making a hushing motion, but not making any sounds. He pointed at where the movement had been seen, the duo slowly sneaking up. They began increasing the pace as they got closer, watching their step so as to not step on anything that could make a sound… And managed to get up close to the unaware pokémon. It was an Eevee, but it definitely wasn't Elly, Eric could tell so even if the Eevee wasn't directly looking at him, it wasn't Shade because it was brown, nor Radius, once again, because of the size… so by process of elimination it was either Natalie or Emily

Natalie's nose twitched, catching a familiar scent but she was unable to tell from where it came, trying to hear around to help herself locate the one who's scent she was catching, while trying to keep her ears under the cover of the bushes. " _Where are you?_ " She thought, starting to get tense and ready to run in case she was discovered, she still had that chance of escaping if she was seen, after all that was a bit of the "tag" part of the game, the prey can run if it notices the hunters had discovered it.

Jake then had an idea, tapped Eric's shoulder and pointed him to the bushes nearby, telling him to hide. As soon as Eric was out of sight, and hopefully, out of her smelling range, the Sneasel crouched down. "Pssst! Hey!" He called her, waving at her with a hand. Eric watched from the bushes, confused, then remembered he was also a hunter… a wide smile appearing on his face.

" _Clever bastard…"_ Eric thought to himself. This was going to be good.

Hearing him, Natalie spun around in a jump, seeing the Sneasel like that. She was wary at first but also she looked at him from feet to head. "Jake… You know this is a game, right?" She asked him, raising an eyebrow once she saw him like that.

"I consider it stealth training… It is a really clever strategy. You were unable to smell me, were you not?" Jake asked, getting up and looking around as he inched towards the Eevee, even giving his back to her at one point, acting as if he was looking around for anything strange, but also showing her that he trusted she wouldn't tag him. "Unless… you have been tagged?!" He asked all of a sudden, looking at her wide eyes.

"I'm not a huntress. At least not yet." she said to him in a low voice, not wanting to be heard, giving him some trust, rising to look around a bit and listening and smelling. "And… I wanted to talk to you." She said all of a sudden, her face turning to a serious expression. "About this morning… I…" she started, finding it a bit hard but she had to… she had to take this burden off of her back and this was a perfect moment. "I shouldn't have been so rude to you with what I said and how I asked you things… so I wanted to say that I'm sorry and… I hope we can try again and… well... maybe become friends?" She apologized to him for her way of acting that morning and now it was up to him if he accepted her words or not.

Jake rose an eyebrow, chuckling as he began walking towards her. "You know… I had also been thinking about our conversation this morning… And I must insist that I am the one that should apologize in this situation. This morning I was being extremely emotional, being lead by my frustration and anger towards Nox's treacherous ways… and although some of the things I said I still stand by… I do believe that we both let our emotions carry us away, thus saying and doing things we later regretted. So… my apologies to you as well, Miss Natalie, for letting such negative emotions cloud my judgement… I will try to contain myself should something like this happen ever again." The Sneasel apologized, now in front of the Eevee and kneeling down, placing a hand on his chest and closing his eyes, apologizing. Eric looked at all of this happen from behind the bushes, moving his head up and down in approval to Jake's apology.

Seeing this, Natalie felt better that he had accepted her words and she accepted his… but she also made him stand back again. "Don't do that, please." She said to him. "I am not more than you so there is no need for you to kneels down, if you want tho, I don't mind a bow, but do not put your knee on the floor for me, ok? And call me Natalie or Nat, no need for the Miss." She added, her fur having a bit of the dirt since she just pushed him to stand.

Jake nodded, taking her paw before standing up. "Oh… and by the way… you're a huntress now." He calmly said. As soon as he said this Eric jumped out of the bushes.

"Gotcha!" He exclaimed, running up to the duo, a wide happy smile on his face.

She looked at them both wide eyed, and then at her dirty fur. "Oh! You pair of tricky…!" She started but then just giggled. "Okay you caught me, even if you just fooled me into thinking I was safe." She said to the Sneasel with a smile, not minding he had tricked her "Who do we go for now, then?" She asked them, not knowing if they had any plans on the order or watever.

However they had little to any time to answer her, as a loud yell crossed through the forest, making them jerk their heads towards the source. "That was…" She started, recognizing the voice even after hearing it so few times. Above them, a Zoroark jumped from branch to branch before jumping down to the ground while running on all fours towards the sound, something bad was happening. Eric and Jake looked at eachother and dashed off after the dark type, Natalie right behind them.

A young human had cornered Emily against a tree, two pokémon, a Nidorino and a Donphan, out on both sides and the human in front of her, cutting off any escape ways she might try to use. The human had a strange red, blue and white ball in one hand as he looked at her with a scary smile. "Seems we have finally found a new addition to the team." He simply said, the pokémon nodding. "You stay still, this won't hurt you." He said as he readied himself, pressing a button on the ball, and threw it at her. Emily saw the thing coming at her and covered herself, trembling and crying uncontrollably, crouching down, covering her eyes and face with her ears and paws, expecting something horrible to happen to her...

But the hit she was expecting never came. Instead, she heard the sound of running and then the thud of a hit and some strange hissing noise. The curiosity got the better of her and she dared to sneak a view, just in time to see silver fur turning red and then the shape of another Eevee deforming and being absorbed into the ball. Her eyes opened wide as she saw this.

As this happened, a howl was heard as Eric jumped out of the trees, hitting the Donphan's head straight on, dizzying him. Before the big pokémon could react, Eric focused aura into his legs, using his own energy to do so and began punching away at the rock type's side, his fists deforming the pokémons skin, the target unable to do anything other than receive lightning fast hits. Eric then delivered one final punch to push him away, and then quickly jumped up and did a drop kick, hitting the Donphan with both legs, which were glowing blue with aura, small fire like energy surging from them. The aura then shot out through his legs, all of it hitting the Donphan directly, a sickening crack noise coming from the pokémon and sending him flying away, crashing through the trees and out of sight from everyone. The Riolu fell to the ground, but quickly got back up and rushed to where the others were.

Meanwhile, a black and red blur passed through, just to be revealed to be Dark kicking the Nidorino's face so hard that the pokémon flew a meter away. The ball in the air then divided in two and the caught pokémon reformed to discover that it was Shade, the Eevee gasping and coughing a bit, Radius went immediately by her side. Jake ignored Eric's outrage and went towards the main group, trying to see if everybody was ok.

"Shade!" The Eevee with the striped kerchief called her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked, worry clear in his voice as he laid by her side.

She was still shaking a bit and panting from the scare she just had. Looking at her brother with a scared face but she managed to answer. "Yeah… I'm fine." She said and then remembered why she had jumped. "How's Em?" She asked.

Dark who had also gone to her side to check on her, looked at Emily, still cowering by the tree's roots. He decided to go to her and knelt by her side. "Hey, you okay? did he hurt you?" he asked, concerned for her.

Emily shook her head. "No, but… he put Shade in a ball! He wanted to hurt me, and she jumped in the way…" The Eevee was on the verge of crying, simply because she was terrified and had no idea of what was going on. Dark stood by her side, even daring to pick her up and hug her to try and calm her, sitting against the tree, his eyes also on Shade as he was worried for both of them.

"She seems only shaken." Radius said turning back to his lil' sis.

"I thought I couldn't escape." Shade said after a bit, trembling again.

"Calm down. We are here and we are not going to let you go." He said to her nuzzling her.

"How did I break out? I was almost passed out in there." She asked him, looking at the broken superball on the ground.

"Dark cut the ball in half with a Night Slash." He answered and she looked at the Zoroark holding the other quivering Eevee and stood, going to his side to thank him. He just nodded to her with a smile seeing her okay.

Meanwhile, the trainer was swearing loudly and calling for both his Nidorino and his Donphan to get back up. Not only that, but he also brought out another red ball.

Jake was relieved to see that everyone was ok, deciding to leave the explanations and questions for later, noticing from the corner of his eye that Natalie was in the clearing too. He looked up at the human, frowning. "You… what did you do?!" He asked, bringing out his claws and pointing at him. "Speak, or else I shall take your life for this offense!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, once again anger taking a hold of him. Eric ran up to the Sneasel after checking up on everyone else, growling at the human. He closed his eyes and quickly let aura flow through him, focusing it on his paws, which began glowing, small blue and white flames coming from his arms.

"Calm down Jake. You don't have to kill this guy… just severely wound him." He said. The human looked at the Riolu, then at the Zoroark.

"You two… managing to knock out my pokémon so easily… I'll weaken you, then I'll catch you! I will finally be able to win the League with you two at my side!" He exclaimed, raising another ball above his head. "Machamp, go!" He shouted, throwing the ball up in the air. It opened, a white beam surging from it and striking the earth, temporarily blinding all of them. When it disappeared however, only a pure white shape remained, and slowly the white light dispersed and revealed the pokémon that came out. It was a Machamp, as the human had announced moments before.

"What the hell is happening here!?" A new voice said as the sound of rustling reached them, Ichiro appearing from some bushes with Hadrim jumping over them to get into the clearing, worry in his face as he approached the sitting Zoroark and asked the same question as Ichiro, getting a brief explanation from Dark. Nox arrived shortly after, looking at the scene around him.

"Yo, there's a Donphan knocked out over there, does anyone…?" He saw both Eric and Jake ready to fight, and then got into position too, flames coming from his maw and claws, looking at the human. He didn't ask any questions, but he knew that if those two were ready to fight, there was a good reason.

Hadrim's face was shocked at first but then it filled up with rage as he turned to face the human and his Mahamp, ready to fight, his jewel starting to glow as he got ready to fight himself.

"You. Are you the owner of these pokémon?" The trainer asked, but didn't let Ichiro answer "I challenge you to a battle for two of them!" he said, he was just a ten year old kid with a heavy case of delusions of grandeur.

"What!?" Ichiro let out, not believing he just heard that. "Are you crazy, dude!? Pokémon are not tools to trade with!" he yelled out, forgetting about keeping his cool and starting to heat up himself.

"Well I don't care, now you battling or what?" The kid pressed.

"What the hell is this human talking about? Owner? Battle?!" Eric asked, now really confused, but certainly excited to kick this kid's ass and teach him a lesson to never mess with their friends again.

"I'm not gonna let you take ANY of them" Ichiro yelled. "Someone has to knock some sense into your fucking head!" Ichiro said, stepping in between the Machamp and the rest, Hadrim ready to go to his side. No one that threatened to take his cubs away will be let off the hook without him having some… communication with them… and he was pissed and wanted to give this brat a good lesson!

"Then let this match begin!" The kid roared.

"Hadrim, you're free!" Ichiro simply said as he stood his ground. The Espeon immediately getting ready to fight.

"So wait.. we can not fight?" Jake asked, looking at Eric, who looked back and shrugged in response. Either way, Jake was going to keep his claws ready… If it came down to it, he wouldn't have any mercy. For the time being however, they decided to respect this "tradition" and waited for whenever they were needed… if they were, that is.

"You wait back there, please. Let us handle this." Those were Ichiro's words, the sole presence of the Espeon allowing him to understand since the psychic type was so used to it that he didn't even need concentration to keep the link.

The kid sent his Machamp to attack. Hadrim observed his foe and prepared himself to fight as the four armed humanoid pokémon threw himself at the quadruped psychic, ready to strike with two of its hands crossed in front of his face in the form on an X, his arms soon started to glow with energy. Hadrim saw this and waited until it was right in front of him before doing a backflip and landing a strong Iron Tail uppercut that broke the move and nailed the fighting type on the face, sending it backwards, Had landing on all fours and ready to continue, his tail being now a silverish colour as it was momentarily metallic and held menacingly high as he kept his eyes on his enemy, Ichiro not uttering a word to the Espeon at all.

This confused the young trainer but he kept ordering attacks to his pokémon, that Hadrim either parried with his tail or sending the fighting-type away with his Psychic. Ichiro just equally as focused on the fight, observing anything that the Espeon might not notice to warn him. Until the Espeon decided that it was enough playing around, and it was time to show this kid what happens when someone tries to take his cubs! The Machamp all of a sudden was lifted from the ground and its four arms were pushed behind its back to a point that made the pokémon cry as the sapphyre on the Espeon's head glowed with intensity, forcing the appendages even more than they should be capable off, just wanting one thing from the pokémon as he started to twist the wrists slowly, drawing out more screams of pain from… him. The Machamp ended up being a male.

Hadrim kept his torture until. "Stop! Stop, please! I give up!" He yelled and Hadrim just stopped his twisting, throwing the pokémon away as if he was a ragdoll to then concentrate on the human… It was so tempting to just… He shook his head and held himself back, but his anger stood there, ready for more. However...

"Ichiro!" Radius barked. Hadrim had felt it himself, since his mind was connected and immediately spun around and went to the human that had fallen to the ground on one hand and his knees, the other hand grabbing his chest as he panted heavily.

"What is it? you giving up? Hah what a whimp!" The trainer said, making around everyone that knew what was happening growl intensely at him, but he didn't care, instead, he called another pokémon, this one being a Steelix. "Come on, i'm not down yet!" The kid said, Hadrim was about to go back, but Ichiro held onto his back, unable to keep going, and the Espeon stood by his side. Dark seeing this could not stay still, letting Emily down on the ground and telling her to stay there, he went to the human and helped him stand.

"Hadrim… Hospital… Please…" Ichiro asked urgently, The Espeon nodding and about to teleport them.

"Ah no! You're not running away! Steelix! Use Rock throw!" He called and the giant steel serpent dug on the ground rising a huge rock and about to launch it at them, Hadrim having to think fast yet he got blocked between moves.

"Hey!" Eric shouted, running up to the Steelix and punching it's face with all his might. His fist met the iron skin of the pokémon, and even though the blow hurt his opponent, the Riolu also felt pain from hitting the metallic pokémon so hard, but he managed to stop it from using the move the human said. He landed on his feet, holding his right paw and wincing, looking up at the human.

"Hey, that's cheating! If you want this to be a double battle… then let's do it! Nidorino, go!" The human shouted, the purple pokémon, who had been watching from the sidelines, jumped into the fray, trying to pierce Eric with his horn. The Riolu jumped backwards and then jumped again as he saw the Steelix's tail sweep the ground once, doing a backflip and landing further away from the duo, but not far away enough for a second sweep from it's tail, which knocked him down on the ground, looking up and rolling out of the way as the tail came down on his head to try and crush him.

He stood back up with the help of the momentum from the roll, but was tackled again, this time by the Nidorino, sending him backwards, to then receive a double kick from the poison type pokemon, which hit his chest directly, knocking the air out of him and sending him tumbling backwards. He laid on the ground for a moment, slamming his fist on the dirt and getting back up. Before he could do anything however, the Steelix coiled his tail around him, immobilizing the Riolu, the pressure around his body making the pain in his arm even stronger.

"Hey… this is unfair! It's two against one!" He shouted, pointing out the unfairness of the battle, yet he didn't receive any response other than a smirk. He growled in response, considering his options. If he called for help to his friends this kid would probably send out more pokémon, and if he didn't he would have to deal with those two. He didn't want to go all out, since he could seriously harm someone that wasn't one of his enemies… but he wasn't about to risk losing this battle. If he had to, he would do it. However, against all that he had planned, the boy pulled out another ball: a black and yellow one.

"Maybe a super ball wouldn't be enough… but an ultra ball will do the trick!" The kid shouted, Jake's eyes widening. That human had used what they had called a "super" ball, before, and Shade would've been caught hadn't it been for Dark's intervention… but now the Zoroark was trying to help Ichiro, so if Eric was caught…

"I won't allow it!" The ice type exclaimed, snapping his fingers and summoning two ice spikes. But he didn't aim at the pokémon. No, he aimed at the human. He was aiming at his legs, without the intent to kill, but wanted to severely damage the human. Those pokémon seemed to obey the human's every word, so if it couldn't speak… then the pokémon would do anything, or would be too busy worrying about their "master".

Dark heard that, and looked at the human, seeing that ball and his eyes went wide, but he could not do anything at the moment, since he was helping Ichiro steady himself. Hadrim concentrating as much as he could, but he did not teleported them yet, worried to what might happen and ready to jump in with his psychic abilities.

Time slowed to a crawl. Eric saw how the human threw his arm forward, the ultra ball escaping from his grasp and headed right towards him. At the same time, two ice spikes shot forwards towards the boy, both of them aiming at his legs, in an attempt to incapacitate him. Everyone's eyes went wide open as they saw those two projectiles heading towards the human.. but it was too late now, and they couldn't be stopped. All three of those projectiles flew near eachother in midair...

And then suddenly stopped, a light blue transparent glow surrounding them. Everyone stared at those flying objects, stuck in midair as if time had frozen, defying the laws of gravity and by extension, logic. Eric, however, recognized this scene, a wide smile appearing on his face as he managed to stick out an arm and blast the dumbfounded Steelix with an aura sphere, freeing the Riolu, stood back up, taking advantage of his opponent's current dumbfounded state. "Don't you think that's a little bit drastic, Jake? Trying to hurt the human?" A voice asked from the bushes. An Eevee walked out, her eyes giving out the same glow that surrounded the ultra ball and the icicles. From behind her, a Shinx and a Zorua walked out, eyeing everyone in that clearing. Luna, Shade and Radius were looking at the Eevee with their eyes wide open, not being able to believe what they were seeing, Natalie on her part was… looking at them all, biting her lower lip as if in an internal conflict with herself. On other part, even when Luna approached a bit to the oldest Eevee, she was speechless and could not form the question in her mouth as to how she could pull out that.

"I was aiming at his legs, Elly, I wasn't intending on killing him… unless you explicitly told me to, that is." Jake answered the Eevee, giving the boy a hateful glare.

"Right… still, it's just wrong. But anyways…" Elly positioned herself in between the larger group of pokémon and the human boy, the icicles flying down to the ground and impaled themselves on it, the ball then coming down to the dirt with such force that it smashed into bits. The human was flabbergasted as he saw his only ultra ball, which he had bought with all the money from his allowances for the whole year… just being destroyed by this unseen force.

"Hey! Come on, man! Now you're cheating!" The boy cried looking towards an still downed Ichiro, who was gasping and grunting while holding his chest, the pain growing even stronger for him after the initial moment, Hadrim feared it had stopped altogether. He needed to hurry but this idiot will not let him go!

"Hadrim! Take him away!" Elly shouted, her eyes focusing on the pokémon that the boy was commanding, her eyes focusing on the Machamps. She gave him a wide smile. "I've got this…" She said, her eyes giving out an even stronger glow.

The Espeon nodded to her. "You lot get back home when this is done. Team Star… I trust you that you will take them back safely." He said and immediately teleported, Dark letting go of Ichiro so he stayed behind with the groups, his face hard and his stare cold towards the human, to then look at the pokémon by him. Noticing just then that the Steelix was nowhere in sight. Just as he was about to warn them, the steel serpent shoot out of the ground, about to slam its head against Eric. The Riolu was unaware of this until the very last second, when he saw a shadow looming over him, looking up to stare right into the eyes of the Steelix, who was just above his head, about to turn him into a pancake.

Dark's actions were… simply put: automatic. His normal defensive instinct turning offensive as it kicked in as he emanated aura on his right upper paw, rising it a bit as the energy flowed out, a purple mist twisting and swirling near his paw and rapidly forming a magenta sphere that reached the size of a beachball "Not a fucking chance!" And he threw it towards the steel type. The Sphere connecting with it's head and exploding with such force, that the serpent was dragged backwards half a meter from the Riolu. Eric took this brief opening to quickly roll away from the Steelix and aimed his paw at it, firing an aura sphere of his own, which violently shot forwards, blowing up underneath the Steelix and sending it flying away even further. Now with some breathing room, the Riolu backed up towards the Eevee and the Zoroark.

Dark didn't pay much attention to what he just did and stood up front, determination in his eyes and with a serious face. He wasn't about to let two friends fight on their own if he had a chance to help with this. Adopting a fighting stance that allowed him for fight or flight easily, upper paws high, his elbows at shoulder height, and legs spread and bent, ready to jump, run or spin. After this, the Zoroark made both his upper paws cover with a black mist that formed two sharply clawed paws on them, there was nothing anyone could say to take him out of this now.

"Thanks back there Dark… I let my guard down, and I could've been squashed." The Riolu quickly thanked him, Elly smirking.

"I got your back, Eric." The Zoroark answered back as quickly.

"You're getting rusty, honey! I thought your reflexes were better than that?" She teased the Riolu, who merely let out a fake laugh, the Eevee giving him an even wider smile. "Sorry I'm late… We hid in such a good spot that we couldn't find you guys." She said, then looked at the boy, who was swearing loudly.

"The guy just left? Fine then! I'll beat you up and I'll put you all into a PC until I feel like pulling you out!" He shouted, his voice cracking as he screamed loudly, looking absolutely ridiculous.

" _I'm afraid that won't happen."_ A voice said inside of his head, the kid looking around and trying to find the source of the voice, which was a female's. " _Down here."_ The voice taunted, the boy looking at the trio of pokémon challenging him, his eyes fixating of the Eevee… with glowing eyes. " _Bingo."_ She mocked him through telepathy, the kid looking at the normal type pokémon, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"An… An Eevee with psychic powers?!" He asked, Elly nodding, a smug smile on her face.

" _Yeah, and guess what? You've managed to make me really angry… And now you're gonna pay!"_ She shouted, crouching down and getting ready for a fight. Eric tensed up, aura surging through his arms and legs, his extremities glowing blue with that strange fire like aura. Behind them, all of their friends were contemplating joining the fight to help them… But a look from Jake, Lucy and Zed told them to refrain.

"What?! Why not?! They need our help!" Nox shouted, Emily nodding enthusiastically, agreeing with him.

"They do not need help… you shall see now…" Jake advised them to stand back and watch, Nox doing so, mumbling and growling in a low voice.

Natalie was debating, she had been told now to stay back but she… " _I can't do anything… those pokémon are very strong…_ " She thought. " _But..._ " She looked at Dark, ready to fight even with how young his body was… whilst she… she just stood back behind him once again, like that time at high school. " _But I… I can't let him do this! Not again!_ " She decided, her face showed her determination and she looked around. She saw something the others had missed. The Nidorino had acted on his own and was sneaking to a side and was about to shoot a Poison sting, his horn glowing and about to shoot, aiming towards the three up front standing pokémon and she acted, a ghostly purple sphere forming over her head as she aimed and shot the Shadow ball towards him. "Look out!" She called as she fired, even the poison type looking but not expecting an attack, it nailed him and he was blown away by the explosion. Natalie was not good in physical attacks but her ranged attacks were really good. Yet she stood back behind the front line. "What? You missed him." She shrugged with a proud smile, sitting down besides Shade and Radius. Luna standing on a branch above them all.

The boy groaned. "Whatever…. Machamp, get back to fight!" He shouted, pointing at their opponents… but the fighting type didn't move from where he was standing, confusing his trainer immensely. "Hey! Machamp! I said go! Use Close Combat!" He shouted, but the Machamp remained still and didn't even answer. The kid looked at the Machamp. "Come on, what is your problem?! Move already! Do something!" He ordered, incredibly frustrated. Elly smiled as she saw his desperation.

 **(Seeker of Truth - Persona 4 Arena)**

" _Huh… no wonder Hadrim beat him so quickly… this guy is dumber than a box of rocks! I literally looked at him once and managed to break through his defenses… but anyways, you want him to move?"_ Elly asked, not waiting for his answer. " _Here, catch!"_ She shouted. She jerked her head to the side, the Machamp following her movement as all of a sudden an invisible force took hold of his whole body, which was surrounding by the light blue aura before he was violently thrown against a tree, crashing right through it, then back to the other side and into another, repeating the process five times until Elly slammed him on the ground and the launched him away like a ragdoll. All of her companions stared at her with a mix of fear and awe at her outrage.

The others would have done something but their jaws were painfully on the floor after not only seeing the Eevee with her special abilities but also Dark literally pulling out an Aura sphere of his own! They were just stunned into petrification. Eric took advantage of the shock from Elly's psychic outrage to dash towards the Steelix, who had just now managed to get back to where the battle was going down. The Riolu prepared an aura sphere, which he immediately threw at the Steelix's face, blowing up on it's face and temporarily blinding him. Whilst he couldn't be seen, Eric ran up behind him and grabbed his tail, pulling on it and using all his strength to start spinning it around. It swept the whole area around them, the fighting type then howling out and jumping into the air, still spinning, then slamming the Steelix face first into the ground, the earth shaking violently because of the brutal hit. The steel type didn't get back up, knocked unconscious, probably better for it that way.

Dark on his part, launched himself towards the Nidorino, jumping forwards as he was about to reach him and doing the same as he did when he cut the super ball that almost caught Shade, rolling forwards on the ground to then deliver a powerful kick to the pokemon right on the face again, making the poison type hit the ground again. This time however, the Zoroark didn't stop there, he rose quickly and delivered an uppercut with his Night slash when his opponent stood, making him rise in the air by the blow. Immediately, Dark dismissed his dark claws and started punching the quadruped poison type in the guts with what seemed to be a Beat up… and a hard and fast at that. Ending with an upwards kick. "Luna, may you, please?" The Zoroark asked as he saw her, managing to break her out of her surprise, seeing the beat Nidorino flying to her height for that kick.

"With pleasure!" She said as she quickly send out a Flamethrower that scorched the pokémon into unconsciousness before he fell back to the ground, landing roughly.

However, the trainer was not happy with this. "I'll catch you all!" He screamed throwing a tantrum and taking out a purple ball from his backpack that made half of the group eyes widen in surprise and fear, whilst the other half didn't really understand what they were so afraid of. Elly saw him pull the ball out and then toss it towards them. She smiled and quickly grabbed it in midair again, then threw it back at the human, hitting him right between the eyes, the ball then landed in front of him and broke, the human howling in anger.

 **(Stop the music)**

Before he did anything else however, his eyes met the Eevee's, sealing his fate as he felt as if someone was putting a weight on his head, unable to think straight… then felt how his body became numb. The Eevee smiled, getting a brilliant idea to teach this hot headed kid a lesson… She lifted him up gently and moved him towards a tree, placing him correct to that his pants would get caught in the branch, the kid hanging from his surprisingly flexible underwear.

Elly smirked as the kid tried to struggle. "There! That ought to teach you a lesson you hot headed baby!" She shouted, the kid unable to understand her words, but still struggling and screaming obscenities that kids his age shouldn't know. Eric walked up to Elly.

"Thanks for that Elly…" He said, the Eevee turning to face him and raising on her back legs, giving him a kiss. Eric kissed her back and then Eevee got back down, the Riolu turning to face everyone behind them. "Well… I guess you all have a lot of questions…" He began, everyone that didn't belong to his group nodding.

"And we have questions for all of you too… such as an explanation as to what happened to Ichiro. But I'm afraid that will all have to come later. Now… we must leave, before any humans come to this area and try to… capture us again." Jake said, snarling at the Human, who winced at the glare that the pokémon gave him. Those two sharp icicles flying directly at him would be forever burned into his memory.

"Agreed… alright let's go!" Eric shouted, remembering the Espeon's last words as he disappeared, the fighting type dashing off, expecting everybody else to follow him. Dark lead his group as they all ran through the forest, heading out of area, and after that Radius pointed all of them the way back to their house. What nobody realized however, was that someone in the group was missing. Far away from where they were now, a Pidgeot landed in the same spot where the game had begun, smiling smugly.

"Ha! Looks like I won! I mean… not even Eric is here! I didn't leave the park… I just stayed above the ground flying! A perfect strategy! Hell, even Jake would be proud of me…" He said, assuming that the game had ended after such a long time. The Pidgeot waited for a few minutes, and once he saw nobody coming, he decided to fly over to the top of the castle shaped playhouse and waited there. His presence intimidated many other kids and pokémon from approaching, some humans giving him worried looks and kids pointing at him, the Pidgeot getting annoyed.

Half an hour passed before he rose up and spread his wings. "HELLO?! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?!" He asked out loud, his voice echoing through the whole park. But nobody responded. The sun was setting in front of him. He slumped down. "Aaah crap…"

 **And that's it folks. Once again, sorry that I'm not going to be dedicating my full time to this, but I honestly think that finals are pretty important, and that's a statement I hope many of you can agree on. Asides from that, thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed!**


	4. Chapter 3 - Explanations

**Chapter 3**

 **Explanations**

The trip back to the Kaiser's household was uneventful when compared to what had just gone down a few minutes before in the park. On the other hand, however, they didn't exactly walk the entire way in silence.

"So then… Ichiro has a heart condition?" Elly asked, her voice expressing her worry for the human boy's health whilst they opened the house's door. "Why didn't you tell us before?" The same Eevee asked moments later, when Dark opened the door after pulling out the keys from his mane.

"It's not something we like talking about." Shade said. Her ears slightly lowered as she went into the house with her head a little bit more down than usual. Radius had kept silent because of that too. On other paw, Dark, Natalie and Luna didn't say any word about it because they thought it was not their right to talk about it since they weren't from the family… and aside of that, the Vulpix had known about this at the same time Team Star did.

"Understandable… after all, we just arrived to this world. They do not know us well enough yet to trust us with such sensitive information." Jake rationalized whilst walking inside, Nox in tow.

"I'm pretty sure none of this would've happened if you guys had let me fight… those guys would be in a world of pain right now!" The Houndour shouted, getting pumped up. Eric sighed and rolled his eyes as he heard those words.

"We would also be in pain, dumbass. Your fire would've turned us into ashes, and we were in the middle of a bloody forest. You would've burnt up everything." Eric responded, Nox getting offended at those words and stomped on the ground, looking at the jackal whilst he entered the house. His face was one of anger, and the Riolu tried his best to ignore it, although he figured out he had probably had gone overboard with the whole "dumbass" thing.

Zed placed a paw on the fire type's shoulder. "Hey Nox, don't be like that. You'll get another chance, I'm sure of it." The Zorua advised him, Nox growling and letting the whole issue rest. He mumbled something under his breath and ignored Eric as he walked past him, who, after noticing that the Houndour was actually livid, decided to leave the whole thing at that too.

Luna on her part, only giggled slightly, she didn't find funny that everyone went against the Houndour every time he tried to boast. She even had counted how many steps took the Fire and Dark type to let out a boasting comment, but what she did found funny was that everyone went to scold him on the first opportunity they had. And she had found some of those moments more like a joke than being serious… even then he was scolded. However she didn't say anything.

"Luna got to use her fire and nobody's scolding her!" Nox shouted as he went into the living room. Everyone followed him there and saw how he got up to one of the armchairs and climbed up, then laid down. He began using swears to describe everything that had happened that day, and his whiny behaviour was starting to get on Lucy's nerves.

"As far as I've seen, her fire doesn't seem to turn everything it touches into Ashes, Nox. Whenever you start fighting with fire things get really dangerous. Don't you remember what happened with those thieves?" Lucy reminded her. Nox tried to, and remembered the incident that the Shinx was talking about. During a mission a month ago, they faced off against some jewel thieves, a Honchkrow and a Noctowl, which had pissed off the fire type after stealing his new pendant… and he ended up roasting them with such an intense flame that all their feathers were burnt up and they needed Rawst Berries to recover.

The Houndour smiled as he remembered all of that. "So then you didn't let me fight because I'm too strong... Hehehe... Yeah, that makes sense…" He muttered to himself. Lucy sighed as she heard this, but everyone knew she was saying the truth. If Nox had gotten himself involved in that fight, someone would've gotten really hurt in that battle. And besides, turning a whole forest to ashes wasn't a very good way to make good first impressions.

"Why are you all so strict with him? He just wanted to lend a paw." Luna asked them when she saw all this unfold and tilting her head to the side when she commented the last bit. "Okay. It would probably have gotten to his head even more… if that's even possible." She added afterwards with a mischievous smirk looking at the Houndour out of the corner of her eyes. "But help is always good like Natalie warning us about the sneaking Nidorino or me with the last burn." She said, ending with a horrible attempt at a terrible pun.

"Let's just say that if we had all jumped into that fight, nobody would've gotten out unscathed. I mean… someone ALMOST killed a human today…" Elly said, eyeing Jake, who sighed.

"Elly, I already owned up to my mistakes, but I am afraid it is high time for you to "stop beating a dead Rapidash". And besides, I told you more than thrice that I was aiming at his legs!" Jake complained, Elly giggling.

"Well, help is always welcome, of course, but… in that situation it wasn't exactly a good idea, since there weren't that many enemies. Also… I think Nox doing what he does best in the middle of a forest is just foreboding for anyone involved. Best case scenario, the whole park would be burning down at this very moment.

"Heh. Touche, Zed." She said with a giggle to then go lay down on the cushion placed at a side of the living room. She saw Dark then walking past the room towards the kitchen not saying a word. Which was strange, since he normally tells where he is going to be. This time, however he went through the living room silent. They all could hear Luca greeting him when he went into the kitchen but he didn't answered verbally. After that, they could hear what Luna recognized as the backyard's door open and then close.

Eric and Elly looked at eachother, confused at the Zoroark's strange behaviour. He hadn't behaved like that since they first met him…. but they had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. He would tell them what was going on when they decided to tell everyone the truth.

After some minutes, Luca came out of the kitchen with a few drinks for everyone, bowls for the pokémon and a glass, this last being surely for Ichiro. "I thought you'd like to have something to drink." She said leaving the tray on the coffee table, right in front of the sofa. She put some bowls on the floor for the quadruped pokémon and left others on the try for the bipedal ones. "How was the morning at the park? Where are Hadrim and Ichiro?" She asked when she didn't saw neither of them there and not feeling their auras in the vicinity. She also noticed something in their auras when she asked. Something that made her grow more and more nervous with every passing moment.

At first, neither Radius nor Shade were able to say anything. For shame more than anything since they knew that this would happen and didn't stop the human from getting into this mess. In the end, it was Shade the one that stepped forward and spoke. She told her mother how everything went from the moment they arrived at the park, up to the accident… She didn't leave anything untold. Hearing this, at first Luca was calm, but as the story continued and it reached the point of what happened with the superball, her face took on a harder expression, but the Lucario kept her composure and didn't interrupt her pup, noting mentally that she would have to thank Dark later. However, her face turned to one of worry when the Shiny Eevee reached the part of the fight of which Hadrim and Ichiro took part of… and the consequences of this. Shade finished her tale telling how Hadrim asked Team Star to take them back home safely before taking Ichiro to the hospital. After that she pretty much summarized the rest of the battle with the trainer, fast but giving the credit to those that took part on that moment of the battle.

After hearing all of this, Luca sat on one of the couches, taking a paw to her head. "¡Ah! This boy…" She sighed, thinking aloud for a moment to then talk to everyone. "Always the same. I have lost the count on how many fights he had got himself into. Fighting against trainers that wanted to catch a pokémon." She said to then look at Emily and the others. "Are you all okay?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Yes, although… we have a question. What is this talk of fights can 'catching' pokémon?" Eric asked, his curiosity peaked. "From what that savage was saying, it sounded like some sort of sport…" He asked the Lucario, his arms crossed before him whilst he leaned against the armchair where Nox was lying.

"Actually, Eric. It is a sport in which humans and pokémon take part on. They learn from each other, they grow up and become mature together and learn of the world that they live in as well, as they travel around it and have all kinds of adventures" She said to them all. " However, there are humans that only care for battling and be the trainer with the best pokémon, without caring to bound with the pokémon at all. They are only interested in catching us and make us breed for stronger pokémon for them to train as they want them to be. Never giving the pokémon the credit of a victory in battle. It is something… which I am not okay with, but as I said, there are trainers that take their time to befriend their pokémon without catching it, and then this trainers leave the choice to the pokémon if it wants to join the trainer's team or not." The Lucario explained for everyone, not wanting to get into the topic of the Pokémon Leagues.

The eyes of all the members of Team Star went wide open. "Arceus… That's horrible!" Zed exclaimed. They all shared a look of varying degrees of disgust on their faces.

"And once you're captured… can't you break free? Are you obligated to obey a tyrannic human's every desire for the rest of your life or until said human gets tired of your presence, discarding you like some used tool?" Jake asked, using the strongest words he had to describe all of that.

"Of course not. You can always manage to break free of the pokéball and escape, but it usually happens when the human has moved far away from where it caught the pokémon and… when one's lost, it tends to stay with what it knows… even barely. True you can risk it and run for it and try to find a way back home." She said. "The pokéball doesn't change the way a pokémon thinks. It is the trainer's behavior which makes us want to give it a chance, before or after going into one as I said before." She explained "There are also trainers that hate pokéballs and that focus on making friends with the pokémon and at the end they do not even ask. They just continue their journey and it's the pokémon the one that chooses all on its own if it wants to go with the trainer or not… There are so many types of trainers that… it is a world all on its own. It has its good and its perverse side."

Lucy looked at the floor, actually scared of hearing all of that. "Even then… it's hard to see the good side when you can be captured whenever and never see your family ever again… - She inched closer to Zed, who calmed her by nuzzling her cheek.

Luca nodded to that. "It is. I won't deny it." She said "But that is only if the human doesn't give you the choice." She repeated one more time, to try and calm their minds a bit. "A close example: look at Hadrim. Ichiro and me met him when he was an Eevee and I a Riolu. He was going to be another one's lunch. We took care of him until he recovered and then we let him go back with his pack. After sometime he came back, telling that he wanted to stay with us and… well…" At that moment, the Lucario blushed like a teen girl, but she didn't say one more word.

Lucy noticed this immediately. "Awww, how romantic." The electric type said, glancing at her mate, giving him… a look that just made Zed blush deeply, although they didn't even have to talk.

"You found your true love. He left you and fate allowed you to reunite… Clearly, you were destined to be together." Jake said all of a sudden, everyone that knew him giving him a weird look. The Sneasel shrugged. "I may lack emotions, but I have read romantic novels… Do not ask why." He added as he saw how Nox opened his mouth to say something.

"More like... he fell for me first… Because when he came back… for me we were still friends…" She blushed deeper, smiling at certain memories" But… How he is… kind… thoughtful… Little by little he gained the heart of this Icy Lady." She said referring to herself with this self imposed title and a smile in her muzzle.

Jake raised a brow when he heard this nickname. He doubted she was the Ice Lady… mostly because Lucario are not Ice types.

"But i'm not gonna bother you with our silly moments… However, I still remember when he confessed openly…" And remembering that made her face light up with happiness, but at the same time her blush brightened by… tons!

Lucy's face lit up as soon as she saw the Lucario blushing. "Tell us! Please! Pretty please!" The Shinx asked, Luca giggling lightly.

"Maybe another day, Lucy" She said calmly, but with her ears down forward and her paws together right in front of her, feeling like she had felt that exact day.

Whilst this conversation was happening, Eric and Elly exchanged a look, as well as a short psychic conversation whilst their companions talked about what the Lucario had just told them about the fights.

" _I don't like this one bit… what do you think? Should we just tell them everything? That way, we won't have to explain anything else in the event this happens again._ " Eric advised Elly through their mental connection.

" _I don't like this either… and honestly we already have to explain them why I have powers… but I don't want to say anything about them. Not yet. I think it's still too soon to share all of that._ " The Eevee responded after thinking about it for a while, as she wasn't really happy about this whole situation.

" _Yeah, but we're gonna have to tell them sooner or later. If we have to resort to using that, then we'll tell them._ " The jackal concluded, noticing that the Eevee was looking at the ground, doubtful. He gave her a comforting smile. " _Hey, don't worry. You know I won't force you to do it if you don't want to. I'm just telling you what I think would be best, but it doesn't necessarily have to happen. Whatever you do, I'll always be there to back you up._ " When he said this, the Eevee looked up and returned him a sincere smile.

"Well… I doubt anything bad will happen to us." Nox said all of a sudden, everyone looking at him. "Guys, we are Team Star! Nobody can stop us!" He shouted, standing up. His words made his companions smile, even Jake, who rose a finger.

"Correction: Team Star AND apprentice…" The Sneasel then looked at Emily, who was looking at him with teary eyes. "And guest." He added, the Eevee hopping up and down with excitement as she was finally mentioned. All things considered, she was the cheeriest of the whole group right now, even after almost being captured.

Nox growled and looked at Jake. "Go to hell man…" He simply said and laid back down, annoyed. "Serge, help me out a bit, will ya?" The Houndour asked. However, he didn't receive any responses. He looked around the room, but didn't find him anywhere. "Hey… where's Serge?" He asked everyone. The group looked around, but they didn't see him anywhere.

"Didn't he go flying around the island?" Luca asked. She hadn't noticed his aura but she thought he had gone on his own to explore after the conversation they had that morning during breakfast.

"Uuuuh… Wasn't he hanging out with us when we were at the park? Did anyone see him whilst we were heading back?" Elly asked. The silence she received was the only response she needed. "Damn it… and to top it all off he doesn't have his crystal on him. Speaking of which, Lucy go upstairs and fetch the crystals from the wardrobe and bring them here." The grown Eevee ordered the Shinx whilst she closed her eyes and sat on the ground. The electric type stood straight and dashed off towards the stairs, her speed making all of the pages in an open book quickly flip and close itself.

Seconds later she dashed down at the same velocity, though this time she had seven pendants in her mouth. They were strange metallic pendants made from a silverish chain from the which hung a crystal, attached to the chain through a metallic piece to keep it there whilst avoiding damaging the gem. The crystals were long and had a pointy end, and they were all differently coloured. Every single Team Star member grabbed one, with the exception of Eric, who grabbed two: One was pure white, which he hung around his own neck, and one that was black as coal. The Eevee opened one of her eyes and grabbed the crystal with her powers, making it float to her neck, whilst Zed grabbed one that had a dark purple glow, Nox grabbed the red one, bright as a ruby; Jake took hold of the light blue one, reminiscent of a diamond, and finally Lucy hung around her neck the yellow one. The only one that didn't have an owner was the light green crystal.

Luca just looked at the crystals, her expression being… normal and more relaxed after that conversation about the past. On other side, Shade and Radius looked at the same items with strange faces, all they were seeing now was slightly familiar for them but neither could put a paw on why. The Eevee with the bow on her ear was the first to let it slide. The Eevee with the kerchief sighing and rolling his eyes just a moment before. He rather not burn his brain about this. "Those collars are so cute." Shade commented after getting a good view at them.

"I know this may come off as a surprise to you, Luca, but… I have psychic powers." Elly said whilst she concentrated. "Now let's see if I can find Serge… I hope he hasn't been captured while we were gone." She followed, a little worried. Meanwhile, Eric was showing his crystal to Shade.

"They're called Resonance Crystals. They're crystals that have absorbed aura whilst they formed and have a natural bond between them. It allows us to communicate with one another, even when we're far away by using Elly's psychic powers as a conduit for our thoughts. They have these colours because they're synchronized with our auras." He explained to the curious Eevee.

"But Serge didn't take his' and we can't tell him that we headed back home without him... so I have to find him the old fashioned way. Since we're all friends, we all have a bond that allows me to at the very least find out where they are… There he is!" Elly interrupted herself all of a sudden, letting out a sigh of relief. "Thank Arceus… he's still at the park… So we actually left him there." She said, letting out a nervous laugh. "Lucy! Go fetch him, quick! And give him the crystal too!" Elly ordered, Lucy leaving the pendant on the floor and looking at her.

"Oh what?! Why do I have to do everything?!" The Shinx asked, annoyed that she was being bossed around like that.

"Because you're the fastest out of all of us! Now get over there, and I'm pretty sure you'll find him almost instantly. Now go! Come on!" Elly exclaimed. Lucy let out a growl, which then turned into a roar of frustration, grabbed the pendant and headed out the door immediately.

Luca, Radius and Shade stayed silent as they did when it was Hadrim who was looking for someone that wasn't at home, used to this. On another paw, Luna was watching all of this unfold without words. She thought if she should say something or stay quiet or… anyways, the Vulpix was the one that was confused the most, looking everywhere in search of some tip on what she should do. However, when Lucy exited the house, the Vulpix couldn't hold herself back anymore.

"Um… Elly?" The fire type female called "I have heard about special pokémon, but I have never heard of pokémon that could have powers from one of its evolutions." She commented while she tried to find the correct words to form her question. "Erm… How can you…? Uhf… I mean… I don't understand." Luna said, tilting her head, lowering her ears and moving her tails, slightly frustrated.

The Eevee opened her eyes and looked at the Vulpix. "Well… I don't really like going into detail as to how it happened… but my mother, Skye, was a really powerful psychic… Some stuff happened and… well, I don't really know how it happened exactly, but…. I just inherited her full powers and one day they woke up inside me." The normal type explained it as best as she could, but it was clear that she knew more about the whole thing than what she seemed.

Hearing this, Luna felt bad… she might not know exactly the situation but she didn't ask more. Her ears and tail where on the floor, still. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable." She said looking at her front paws, down on the floor.

"Eh… No… It's… not exactly that… it's true I don't really know what happened exactly… I told you to the best of my capabilities. I'm sorry." Elly apologized.

"Girls. Try not to fall on an never ending loop of apologies." Luca said "You both are sorry for what you are sorry and the two of you accept the other's apology, right?" She advised the two of them with a motherly smile on her muzzle. That smile made Luna lower her head a bit as she smiled back, nodding, the Eevee nodding as well and blushing as she realized how ridiculous this whole situation was. Eric, who was watching this scene transpire, decided to leave, as his presence wasn't necessary, so he opted to check on Dark.

"Well Elly… I'm going to head out and see what Dark's up to… I'll be right back." He told his mate as he headed towards the kitchen, Elly nodding in response.

"Would you be so kind to bring him a bowl, please?" Luca asked him, picking up one of the bowls from the tray and handing it to the Riolu. It wasn't much, just some berry juice made with various fresh berries, each bowl different but all with a bit of Pecha berry on them for it to have a sweet taste.

"Of course." The younger jackal responded, grabbing the bowl and giving the Lucario a smile. After that he headed to the kitchen door, which he opened with his free paw, headed out and closed the door behind him. The first thing he saw was the Zoroark, who was standing in the center of the backyard. The Zoroark was facing the house but his sight seemed to be lost somewhere. When Eric saw him, Dark was looking to a side, one arm outstretched while the other was folded with the pads of his paw were pointing upwards and the elbow laying on the side of his belly. His feet were separated so he could keep his balance even when he was fully straightened up instead of leaning forwards so his mane was laying on his back. Slowly, the Zoroark moved his outstretched arm from one side to the other, claws raised and the pads of this one pointing forward, following his own movements with his sight which seemed to be more lost than focused.

Dark was doing one of the things that relaxed him the most, and that helped him take his head away of what was happening. Relaxing with the slow and flowing movements of Tai-chi. Being concentrated on his body's movements helped him to stop thinking about what was happening and it reached a point in which his mind was completely at peace. When he reached this point, the Zoroark's meditation. He was almost deaf to his surroundings and his sight was lost… somewhere in front of him. Changing movements, Dark rotated his body, folding the outstretched arm until it touched his chest, and the other moving it a bit backwards, as if he was getting ready to give a punch to something from the waist. After a few instants, the fur on the area of his elbow stood on end as the dark type's aura concentrated in that place.

Eric looked at him whilst he made these strange movements, and thought that Dark had already seen him. As such, he approached him with a smile.

"Hey Dark, I brought you…" The Riolu didn't get to finish that sentence, for the moment he opened his mouth Dark delivered a hard punch forwards, with a fast and precise movement, letting out a growl when he did this. The aura storaged at the joint's area shot towards the paw at the same time. If someone was sensible to aura and was near, it would most likely have felt this, even if it only was a slight feeling.

Eric could not foresee the attack and had to rely on reflexes. In the spur of the moment he threw the juice bowl away and jumped to the right, the fist grazing his fur. Dark's face was firm and calm, that is, until a bit of time passed while he waited for any sound to deliver another fast movement or continue with the slow ones. Only then his brain came back to where it was supposed to be and do what it was supposed to do, which was register what was happening around the dark type. Eric rose his head to look at him, still surprised because of that attack.

"Holy hell! If you had hit me with that you would've sent me flying back to the living room! What was that for anyways?" Eric said, keeping his distance with the Zoroark.

Upon hearing him, Dark looked at the Riolu, blinking in confusion at first until… "Shit!" He said holding his muzzle with both upper paws, eyes big as plates. "I didn't hit you, right? Please tell me I did not." Asked the Zoroark.

"Well… I'm still standing here, and in one piece…" The sound of the bowl crashing on the ground and breaking into tiny fragments echoed in their ears. "That isn't…" He added just after that, worried. That punch could've done some serious damage to him in he had been hit in the face.

"I'm sorry. When I do this i… kind of zone off completely and… Well when I hear something in that state y react like that." The Zoroark explained, taking his paws away from his face. After this he looked at the crashed bowl on the floor. "Uh… I'll have to apologize to Luca for that later…" He said scratching the back of his head "Anyways. This is what I meant when I said I would try to approach meditation in a different way." Dark said. Talking about what he had mentioned after talking with the Riolu about the Zoroark's affinity with aura.

"Yeah well… that's the least of our worries right now. Do you know what you just did?" Eric asked, the surprise of the move still visible on his face.

"Errrr… Throw a punch with energy?" Dark asked, not being able to find a better way to explain it.

"What you just did is an aura charged punch, but what I'm surprised about is the strength of the blow. It was much stronger than any pokémon of your typing should be able to do." Eric explained.

Dark lowered his ears back and blushed a bit. However he didn't know how to take what the Riolu just said to him.

"I don't get you…" He admitted, leaning forwards again, carrying his mane again on his back.

"Ok… let's say that you tried to create an aura sphere, ok? The aura you're controlling focuses in your arm, transfer it to your paw, give it a shape and you transform it into a sphere. You follow?" He asked, Dark nodding. "Alright well… you just did one of the first steps of that process. You focused aura in your arm, but you didn't give it a shape and found itself stuck in your arm, and when you tried to punch me, the motion of you throwing your arm forward released the aura in a single instant. Let's just say that it was the full force of an aura sphere that had been fired at point blank range, but it didn't go everywhere as if it were an explosion, it just went in a single direction as if it was some sort of… wave. I can't describe that accurately, but that's what it is. I call the whole process "Aura Charge", and I can do it on both my arms and legs." The Riolu explained everything to the best of his capabilities, but once again, his explanations were a little too subjective, as he was coming off of his own experience, and didn't know if it worked any different with other species that didn't control aura naturally, without giving it much thought.

Dark sat down during the whole explanation and when he finished he looked at his arm. The Zoroark concentrated slightly, feeling his own energy, closing his paw into a fist and he retracted the arm as if he was about to throw a punch. This time, he concentrated on the feeling. He didn't have to wait much before starting to feel how the fur on his elbow stood on end again. This time, however, he moved his arm slowly in front of him, paw open again, pointing upwards. He concentrated more, feeling the fur on his whole arm standing on end, from the elbow, all the way down to the paw. Even under the bandages. However, right now he didn't know how to make the aura come out of his arm without giving a hit and even in those moments it seemed more like an automatic action than he doing it willingly.

Eric gave him a curious look, noticing the small detail of his fur standing on end. The Riolu closed his eyes and used his aura vision to check on the concentration of his body's aura. Just as he suspected, when the world turned black and saw Dark's aura, which looked really peculiar, purple like Zed's, but with tinges of orange floating in it; he saw that Dark's arm was in fact where all the aura was concentrating.

"And here I thought it was going to take you longer than that… But who cares, looks like you already have it down… I think. You should feel this strange pressure on your arm. That's because your aura is focused there, and not only that, but you're also retaining it there with your will." Eric began to explain as he rose his right arm and focused, using his own aura to make the process faster, his arm giving out light from small blue flames. "I normally release it whenever I throw a punch, and for that the only thing you have to do is release it." He followed.

"Like a did before, right?" The Zoroark asked, still looking at his arm and feeling his fur in that way. He could also feel that slight pressure. "But… How do you do to make the aura come out and give it form once it is accumulated? That's the question I was looking for." Concluded Dark, moving his arm a bit. Doing this, a strange purple mist, tainted with orange traits followed his arm as he did this. this made him open even more his eyes for the surprise of this. It almost made him lose his concentration. "Woah… cool!" Was the only thing he could came up with when he saw this.

"Oh that…. Ok, so… you have to grab that aura you have concentrated in your arm, and you try to imagine a shape in your head. It has to be tridimensional. If you want to create a sphere you have to imagine the whole thing, not just a circle." After that, the Riolu opened his paw, and slowly a small white round sphere of light grew. "And you can also adjust the size, so make sure that you are able to make it without tiring yourself out, but don't make it too small either. And remember…" Eric noticed the look of confusion on Dark's face.

"Slow down, please. First I want to make it come out. After that I think it will only be practice." Dark said when Eric almost started to run through all the precautions that must be taken when working out this moves.

"Alright, just one more thing though: Aura is pure energy, so if it touches anything else that isn't your own body, it will blow up violently. If you don't want to kill your target, I'd suggest you don't make them too strong and you don't aim it at them, and if you don't want to be blown up in black and red chunks, don't throw them near you either." The Riolu advised him.

"Even when I managed to deflect your sphere, I'll have it in mind." Dark said with a sided smirk, showing only the fangs of the left part of his muzzle smiling that way, but he was serious in that he'll take the warning. "By the way, do you know if that juice had some of Pecha berry? I don't think it is a good idea to go a day without one after fighting a pokémon that can poison me for just touching it if I was to get stabbed by one of the spikes of its body." Dark said, talking about the Nidorino earlier.

"Aaaah… Crap." The Riolu simply said as he glanced at the bowl, finally realizing how much he had messed up.

While Dark and Eric were trying to find a solution to the bowl situation, Elly was talking with Luca, Shade and Zed, who had remained in the living room whilst the others went away to do their thing. Elly was laying down on one part of the sofa, Zed was on the opposite side, whilst Luca was sitting on the armchair in front of the sofa, and finally Shade had fallen asleep on her mother's legs, and was calmly taking a nap.

"... and after that, she goes and gives me a kiss on the lips and knocks me down to the ground. Right there, in the middle of town, just kissing me while most of our friends look. I'm not complaining, but… if I'm honest, I don't think I've ever been more ashamed in my entire life." The Zorua told them of how he and Lucy had ended up together, blushing as he finished the story.

"Well, I see it a very beautiful moment" Luca said smiling at hi. "One where tensions from before doesn't matter, just what one feels."

Zed scratched the back of his neck. "Well uh… that… uh… is not… WAS not the problem, uh… The problem was that she did it while all the pokémon that knew us stared. I just… would've preferred something much more personal, y'know? Once again, I'm not complaining, but… I'm not the type to go around kissing your mate in public." He said, shooting a glare at Elly, who answered by returning that same look and blushing at the same time. The Zorua smiled, enjoying his small victory.

"Well, everyone shows their love for another when, where and in front of who they want to" The Lucario said with the same smile. "If you are fully mates you shouldn't care about who sees you kissing your female. Honestly, I see it like a way to say to everyone that you love her and that you don't care to scream it to the world as loud as you can. But of course there are shy ones that would rather do that in more… intimate places." She ended adding maybe just a tiny bit of a suggesting tone to the last words she said, even moving her eyebrows to make even more clear what she meant.

The dark type did not have enough strength to look at Luca and answer that comment, and instead responded by becoming as red as a tomato and curling up into a ball, the space his body covered becoming smaller and smaller as he curled his tail around him and covered his face. This whole process proved to be a satisfactory answer for the Lucario.

Elly smiled as she saw the Zorua's response, but it was then when she heard a voice inside of her head, Zed's ears perking up as well.

" _Uuuuh… Hey guys? I found him._ " Lucy's voice echoed inside both of their minds, both pokémon letting out a sigh of relief. " _Buuut… I think he's gone nuts._ " She said after that.

Elly stood up. "What do you mean: 'gone nuts'?" She asked, really confused.

" _Well… he's flopped on top of the rope bridge on one of the weird castle things in the park… and he's singing?_ " A few seconds of silence followed the Shinx's words. "' _Oh please, may the ancestors have mercy on my poor, innocent soul! What have I done to deserve this cruel, cruel fate?! Abandoned by those that I considered my friends, left to die in this strange, new and cruel world… Why, my brothers in arms?! Why did thou hath to leave me behind?! Oh you're a cruel mistress, oh fortune!' And he's still going too… what do I even do now?_ " Lucy asked, flabbergasted at what she was both seeing and hearing. Meanwhile, Zed and Elly were barely holding back laughter, and while Elly was doing good so far, Zed giggled every so often, which in turn made her want to laugh.

"Call out for him and give him the necklace, see if he recovers…" Elly told her, not really sure of what was going to happen. Lucy didn't answer verbally, but the Eevee guessed that the Shinx understood.

Luca on her side was looking confused at both the young Pokémon in front of her, not knowing what was happening except for what Elly was saying out loud. Their auras giving away that they were having a lot of fun, so much that it was contagious to the point that Even Luca felt the urge to laugh but she just allowed herself to smile lightly, but after Ely's words, she couldn't help but ask. "Did I miss onto something?" The Lucario asked, not minding who would answer.

Elly looked back at her, not really paying too much attention. "Huh? Oh, well, Lucy just talked to us and told us that she just found Serge at-" She never got to end that phrase.

" _YOU MOTHER FUCKERS! BASTARDS! DID YOU SHITHEADS FORGET ABOUT ME?!_ " Serge's voice boomed inside of their heads, and although it scared them at first, all the laughter they had been holding back was released in that single instant. They both burst out laughing as Serge insulted them repeatedly, getting worse and worse as he kept going. " _...and shove them straight up your asses! How could you fuckers do this to me?! Me! The guy who puts his feathers into carrying your asses all over the place… This is how you repay me?!_ " The bird asked them, completely hysterical.

Elly and Zed couldn't stop laughing, and neither had the capability to respond, both pokémon rolling across the sofa, and Zed ended up falling down, hitting the wood with a loud short noise, but he ignored the light pain and kept laughing. (Luca) Once they managed to calm down, Elly wiped the tears from her eyes and breathed in. "Ah…. sorry it's just that… some stuff happened when we were playing hide and seek… or hunt and seek… whatever it was called..." She let out a few more laughs. "Lucy… just bring him home and we'll tell you… or she can tell you on the way here." Elly told the Shinx, speaking out loud for some reason.

Serge groaned. " _I hope you choke on a fat… Ugh, let's just go, Lucy… So I can… AAARGH!_ " The Pidgeot let out one last loud groan of anger and frustration just before Elly cut off the conversation for the time being.

Zed coughed and got back up on the sofa. "Arceus…. that was so good… hehehe. I think… we're going to have a wild time when he gets back…" The Zorua said with a huge smile on his face, lying down where he had been previously.

"Well, if the two of you are calm now… " Luca said, taking away her paws from the still sleeping Shiny's ears, to then look at the coffee table, where was still the tray with some bowls of juice. "Elly, would you mind getting Natalie a bowl? She should be in her room, if I'm not wrong. Zed, what you say you prepare dinner today? I want to try what you do on your own." She offered the Zorua standing up, taking Shade in her arms. "I'm going to leave this sleeping cutie in my bedroom." She ended smiling at her kit. "If you need anything in the kitchen tell me, okay?" She said to the Zorua.

Zed nodded, thinking about what he could prepare for dinner. He didn't know what he could find in the kitchen, but he would grab whatever he found and prepare something edible and delicious with it. With that plan in mind, he started heading there. Elly looked at the juice bowls and grabbed one with her psychic powers. "Ok, I'll do that… by the way, Dark and Natalie's room is at the end of the hallway, right?" She asked the Lucario, who smiled in return.

"That is your room now." She reminded the older Eevee. "Dark's and Natalie's is the one halfway through the hallway, the door on the left side looking from the stairs." The Lucario guided her. "Besides, if you are a psychic you should be able to pinpoint Natalie's mind, right?" She asked in a little joke, the same she had pulled on Hadrim when he moved in with them.

"Oh… right. Thanks. And yeah, I'd be able to notice her presence, but I would've not be able to recognize her because I don't know her well enough. And besides, I like using my powers a lot, but not that much, I've got eyes and ears for a reason." She giggled to herself as she said that. "But anyways, doesn't really matter that much. I'll give this to her, sure." The Eevee finally answered and headed up the stairs towards the sibling's room.

* * *

Natalie had decided to go to her room. She didn't even went to the living room. The Eevee just entered the house, walked through the hallway to the stairs and went up, going into her room. and laying down on the bed. She didn't talk with anyone during the whole trip back, except when she said she was okay when she was asked by the others. However, it was clear she wasn't okay, she was worried, scared for the human boy, who had become a very good friend during all the time she and Dark had been there… and maybe even more than a friend… Ichiro had taken care of them since they needed help to eat. Aside from that the human was one of those that encouraged them to do things. Honestly, for her, he had been like a big brother for both of the siblings and Nat couldn't think otherwise, even with Dark to make her think that same way about him, Ichiro's presence was as strong for her as it was for her Zoroark little brother.

After some minutes of this pondering, Natalie decided it was better to kill time doing other things until hadrim came back with Ichiro. She wasn't feeling like training so she decided to take a book out of the desk's drawer. She had to jump on top of it to be able to open the thing and then she, very carefully, took the book on her maw in order to put it on the desk, where she could use her paws to open and flip the pages. It was hard at first but she managed to flip only one page at a time with her paws and she lasted little in getting used to it so it stopped being a problem for her. Once she found the page and the exact point where she left, maybe reading a bit from a little further behind to get the whole situation fresh, Natalie kept her reading. The only hard part was… that she still had problems reading in pokémon, even after being practising. It was mainly translate the letters, but there were some words, contractions and shortcuts in the writing that she couldn't catch at first, but that little by little she had began to comprehend their meaning thanks to the context of the phrase… and even then there were some that she couldn't understand not even by context, but the emerald eyed Eevee wasn't one to give up!

Half an hour passed before the sound of someone knocking on the door was heard, which made her turn her head to face that direction, distracting herself from her reading.

"Yes?" She asked, standing up and jumping from the desk to the go to the door, sitting, getting ready to jump and open it.

"Natalie? Is it you? I've brought you a juice bowl that Luca prepared. Can I come in?" Elly asked permission to enter from outside.

"Of course… give me a second." The younger Eevee answered to then jump, reaching the hendler and opening the door with her weight, landing on all fours an instant later while the door opened slightly, giving away that it only needed to be pushed to be opened. "Come in." She said calmly.

Elly opened the door the rest of the way with her powers and went into the room, greeting the Eevee that was already inside. She showed her the juice bowl. "Here, Luca prepared it. I think it has some Pecha Berry juice in it too." Elly explained as she left it on the desktop where Natalie had just been reading.

"Thanks, Elly." Nat answered with a smile. "Hey… I know I already apologized to Jake for what happened this morning but… It's just I shouldn't have acted like that and I feel that I had offended all of you in some way." She said, lowering her ears and tail while sitting on the floor.

Elly smiled. "Hey, calm down, you didn't offend me at all, and I don't think you offended anyone else either… In all truth, Jake was the only one who was angry with you, and even then Eric told me you and him talked it out… Hey, are you alright? You look like you're tired." Elly made that observation all of a sudden as soon as she noticed that Natalie's eyes were half closed.

"Huh?" Natalie looked at the older Eevee again- "Oh! No… I'm just… worried." She said. "Ichiro has been like a big bro since me and Dark got here and… well…" She said. "What's happening is… not easy to handle." she ended.

"You're talking about the heart attack, right? Yeah… it wasn't exactly the greatest thing to happen, you're right. But Hadrim took him away so they could help him,("Ichiro could get help"?) correct? He should be ok by now…" Elly told Natalie, but more so herself. What kind of medicinal advantages do they have in that world where things like that aren't really that much of a deal?

"I hope so, Elly… I really do." The younger answered. "Well… do you need anything more?" She asked looking at the sky eyed Eevee. She didn't want to make her go away at all, she just couldn't come up with any conversation to start.

"Well actually, now that you mention it… there's something that caught my attention about what you told Jake this morning. When you said that you know a world filled with lies and suffering… and I was a really surprised at that, because I honestly don't think this world has that many problems, so… I think you and Jake were talking about completely different things." The older Eevee said, expressing her worry for that sentence the younger Eevee had spit out that morning… and with all that anger behind it as well.

"Oh… That." Natalie said lowering her ears and looking to the desktop. "... Come, jump up." She said jumping on top of the desk from the floor, being careful to not drop the juice or damage the book she was reading, and then she approached the only two portraits that were on top of the desk, exposing each a photography. She sat in front of the photos and looked at them. One photo had a lot of humans on it, all smiling and looking at the camera all crowded together, with a big christmas tree with lots of gift packages at its base adorned the right side of the photo. The other only held two humans. Natalie fixated her look on this second photo. Real emerald eyes looking directly at the ones caught forever in the photo paper, to then look at the rest of the image. It had a young boy and a young girl, both seeming to be around Ichiro's age, by just seeing their faces since it was what the photo showed, two smiley faces. The boy wore a white shirt with black neck, he had heterochromia but his eye colour just differed in the shade of the blue of them, one eye was cyan blue while the other was cobalt blue, His hair was a black with some red stripes on it. On other side, the girl wore a purplish shirt and a pendant in the shape of a heart cut in half, her eyes were emerald in colour, exactly like the younger Eevee's eyes. Her hair was a fiery shade of red and she had it held on a ponytail. Both humans had in common the clear brownish skin colour.

Elly walked up to the desk and grabbed the chair, which she moved and then jumped on, then made her way onto the desktop, being just as careful as Natalie to not knock over the bowl. Once she was up there, Elly glanced at the smaller Eevee, who pointed towards the photography of the two humans with her head. The Pokémon with powers looked at the photo intently, appreciating every single detail that they had.

"Hmmm… some humans? They're… really weird, with those strange eyes..." She stared at the boy's eyes closely, because for some reason she recognized them, and then looked at the girl's eyes. She then looked at Natalie, then back to the human, then back to the Eevee, and back and forth. "You… You're the human girl!" Elly screamed all of a sudden, finally realizing the connection.

"No need to scream." Nat said lowering her ears and head just a bit. "And yeah… I was… Now I don't see myself with hands." Said the youngest Eevee, looking at her front paws casually. "I was sixteen back then, and still are, mentally." She added. "But that's not all." She kept talking and then looked at the boy of the photo, to then look at the one that had all those humans together, all smiling to the camera. "As well as you and your friends… we came from another world." She confessed while looking at the family photo, her eyes getting a bit watery, but she tried to keep her composure.

Elly's mouth touched the wooden desktop. "However, while in your world humans do not exist, in ours there are no pokémon, just humans and animals. In that world, compared to the number of inhabitants of it, there are very few that worry about others… There the major part of the population only watches for their own interests, not caring who are they hurting or in which way. They lie, they deceive, they absorb… They only group together with those that can make them get more and more…" Natalie said. "We came from that world… It was Dark's decision to come here. I don't know why. He just told me that we were asked to help and that he accepted offering it. "If not us, then who in our world would?" That is what he said…" And she ended there, letting the older eevee digest all the information she just heard and waiting for any questions that may come. She was willing to trust Elly and tell her everything if she wanted to know.

The blue eyed Eevee couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Alright alright… let's go step by step here… you… AND your brother come from another world where us pokémon don't exist… and he dragged you here without your consent? And… you were also turned into pokémon? How?" Elly asked, really confused about this whole situation, but giving Natalie the benefit of the doubt.

"I consider it better that way to be honest." Natalie answered to Elly's first question. "I know Dark and… after an accident we had with a bully to whom Dark… quite literally almost broke his face… He didn't want to be away from me… It doesn't justify the fact that he dragged me here without asking, I know, but if he hadn't done it not only would have him gone crazy with worry but I would also have get scared myself… Sadly… we left a lot behind." She said looking at Elly and then again at the family photo. "Family… friends… everything honestly. It isn't anything easy to digest, I believe you understand that."

Elly bit her lower lip. "Yeah… let's just say that I have a good idea of… how it feels to loose everything in a single moment… it fills you with despair and robs you of your will to live… But yeah, I know all too well what you're talking about, unfortunately…" Elly says, her mind shifting to other thoughts… memories, in fact.

"Regarding how we got turned into Pokémon, well it was quite the adventure, really… "Natalie said, in an attempt to change the subject and the mood. "The first time I woke up here we were in the forest so I didn't thought much of it… Until Dark got breakfast ready and we both ate but neither of our friends, with whom we had gone camping with, appeared. Then I asked him and he told me what happened that night. Our friends were in reality five legendaries from this world and asked him for help, he asked about me and they said I would come too, so he accepted helping them. Dark is just like that most of the time willing to help others… back to topic. We argued about him not asking me about coming here. It didn't go well and I didn't talk to him for the rest of the day, and the two following days I was more of a bitch towards him… so to say. The third day we found a Cradily and a Ninetales fighting. I suggested to stay away and continue ourselves but by that point my dear brother was swinging himself on a vein kicking the Cradily away from the Ninetales that was trying to climb back up from a cliff ledge. In the end Dark used a disinfecting liquid from our medical supplies to fake a Flamethrower towards the Cradily. It got scared by this and ran away. After that Dark helped the Ninetales, who had fallen down and was dangling from the branch of a tree growing in the side of the cliff. We were getting him up but when they got to the ledge again, the Ninetales slipped off and almost fell… If we hadn't grabbed his tails to save him he would have fell down to his doom. I don't know if in your world this happens but here if you grab a Ninetales' tail, you get cursed by the Ninetales… I don't know how that works but it happened." Natalie told to Elly. "After all that I decided to take a nap and rest and when I woke up I was like this, laying down in Clara's and Daniel's bed." The younger Eevee finished her tale.

Elly thought for a moment. "As far as I know, Ninetales don't curse someone for just touching their tails, and… well actually, there are no humans in our world to test that… well no, actually, there WAS one, but he never touched a tail… and even then I doubt he would've been affected by it… so in the end you and your brother had really bad luck with… all of that." Elly responded, still flabbergasted at this whole turn of events. "And… did you get time to say goodbye, or was it just... all of a sudden?" She asked a follow up question.

"We were just going out camping for a weekend… Going to sleep in the forest near our town with the friends I mentioned before. I went to sleep early and when I woke up we were already here. So the last thing we said to our parents was… 'Good bye. see you in a few days.' Mom always worries a lot and kept telling us to be careful and calling both Dark or me every five minutes along the way to the forest. Dad on the other side, while he is protective of us, he also gives us more… space… However I doubt this was into his own limitations." Natalie answered, talking a bit about her parents and letting out a little comment at last, while she pawed at each of them, first her mother, then her father, who was just next to her in the family photo. "So… Yeah. You could say it was sudden, but we got to say goodbye without tensions… I wonder if they think of us death at this point…" Hearing herself saying this, she shook her head hard. "Nata Korel don't think like that!" She scolded herself after shaking her head to get rid of that thought, taking her paws away from the photo as to avoid throwing it off. She put her paws on her face and closed her eyes. A lone tear escaping each eye of hers while she breathed deeply to try and calm herslef down. Her ears lowered.

"Hey hey hey… don't act like that. I know it can be hard, but… if you start thinking about it too much the only thing you're going to achieve is making everything worse. It hurts a lot, that I know first hand, but… take into account that sooner or later you'll have to move forward, you can't let the ghosts from your past haunt you forever. You have to start a new life here and now… that's the only way to overcome it. You must never forget them, for they're the ones that looked out for you when you were young… but try to move forward." Elly tried to cheer up the once human Eevee, trying to use her own experience to give her the best advice she could.

Natalie breathed in deep again. Taking her paws away from her face. Her breathing shaky for a bit but she managed to relax, even if slightly, after a bit. "You are right… there are no guarantees for us that we can go back." She said. "And even if we could I wouldn't want to go back like this." She commented. Elly shot her a look, as if offender by the younger Eevee's words. Noticing her face and look, Nat's ears went low on her head yet again. "Erm… Don't get me wrong, please. I love being an Eevee." She said. "But, like I said before, there are no Pokémon in my world. If any was to appear, the humans would capture it to study it. Know how its body works, its lifestyle, its habitat… and even…" She shivered thinking of this last. "How its body works… inside…" She ended, getting pale in an instant.

Elly shivered as she heard this last bit. "Arceus… those barbarians… Do those humans not have souls to begin with? Maybe it turns out I was right after all… Humans really are worse than pokémon…" Her face turned really bleak at that very moment, as if she remembered something she had never wanted to remember. "In… most cases though… there's always… exceptions." The Eevee muttered, absorbed in her own thoughts. She shook her head and looked at Natalie. "But anyways… Yeah, I see where the problem is." The Eevee concluded, nodding.

"Curiosity in and of itself is not a bad thing…" Nat commented. "However when it clouds your mind and mixes with a lust of knowledge, to know how everything works, to seek an explanation for everything… It is dangerous… for both sides. Pokémon in this case and humans in much others. Honestly, I think that those that had something bad happening to them for this reason deserve it." She sentenced firmly.

Elly gave her a serious look. "Don't ever wish death upon someone else… even if they're your worst enemy. It'll leave you empty on the inside. Leaving with hatred is horrible, and… I'm telling you this from experience, Natalie." The Eevee looked out the window, staring into infinity. "Living for most of your life in misery like that instead of trying to change the situation around you… you're so focused on hating and lamenting… you're only giving space in your heart for loneliness, and even when hope is right in your face, you just can't see it… So don't do that. Nobody, no matter how horrible their mistakes were, deserves death." Elly sentenced. "That who judges those around him… someone who decides who lives and who dies… I've met someone like that. And even though he claimed to be just… he was a bad person." Elly said, shaking her head once more. "Bah, who cares about that. Point is, hating is bad." She concluded at the very next moment and smiled at the smaller Eevee, summarizing all of her lecture in just two short phrases.

"I never wished death upon anyone. I just say that those who had something happening to them deserve it." The emerald eyed Eevee answered. "Still, thanks for the lecture, I needed one a bit." She ended, giggling slightly.

"Lecture?" Elly asked, then groaned. "Eeeh, never mind… this conversation went off the tracks real fast, didn't it? Where were we…" The sky blue eyed Eevee tried to remember. "Oh yeah, we were talking about the fact that you and your brother were once human… If that's the case, can I ask you a question?" She asked the green eyed Eevee.

"Of course you can. I'll answer the best I can." Answered the smaller Eevee smiling.

"Well… you see… do you and your brother… by any chance… you won't know something about someone… ok let's see, how do I put this…" Elly was doubting whether she should tell her or not, and in the end she leaned for a choice. "Do you know something about the human language? I'd like to learn it, but Ichiro isn't here, and… well… I'm slightly embarrassed to ask Hadrim for help, since I want to learn by myself." The Eevee admitted, blushing a little bit. It wasn't a lie… but it wasn't the full truth either.

"Well, no one can learn something without the basics." She said calmly, not mentioning the change in the question she caught in the older's speaking. "Look at me, for example." She added. "I couldn't be reading this book if I was to not know anything about pokémon writing. And even then, there are… words and shortcuts that I don't seem to get at all."

Elly giggled. "Well I just don't understand some of the letters you use… and there's some words that just go on forever… and there's always the new vocabulary… but hey, at least most of the letters are the same, right? It's not like ancient Unown… now that's hard to learn." The Eevee said with a wide smile, trying not to remember those classes that the Kecleon brothers had given her.

"Maybe." Natalie answered, smiling gently and closing her eyes for a moment. "I haven't tried it yet." She added, letting out a giggle herself.

"Oh, normal Unown is quite easy… well, at least reading is. The hard part is TALKING in it. And even then, you have to get used to distinguishing the letters, because ok, capital letters are really easy to understand; for the love of Arceus the poor things look just like their language… but the lower case letters can confuse you a lot, specially when they're all bunched together forming words. The accentuation is also a hard one to master… but the worst part is speaking it. You have to do really weird things with your mouth… and that sounded REALLY bad." The Eevee with the sky blue eyes said this whilst giggling and blushing.

The emerald eyed one stayed looking at the older for a moment, not getting why she was like that all of a sudden, until it clicked and she laughed a bit. "Elly! Haven't you said anything I wouldn't have noticed! There are things a girl would rather not have in her mind at some moments." She side with a sided smirk. "So then, better reading and writing, right?" She said, leading the conversation back to its previous topic before it went wild again. She giggled a bit while approaching the juice bow and lapping a few sips out of it, sitting and purring in delight. "Luca always make some delicious things." She comments. "Zed said he helped her cook yesterday, right?" She asked. "I would like to try something prepared by him." she ended.

"Well, I think that tonight was his turn to make dinner… although I don't have the slightest of what he's going to prepare, although I'm positive it will be something that involves berries… he also makes some delicious pizzas." The Eevee commented, licking her lips. She didn't cook as well as he did, even though she had read hundreds of cooking books and recipes. "I also know how to cook. I'm not as good as he is… but I'm not a complete loss, unlike a certain electric kitten whose name I shall not mention." Elly dropped, recalling that fateful night when Lucy had prepared dinner… it didn't end well.

"My lips are sealed." Natalie said smiling.

"Thanks… Well anyways… Want to leave this conversation for later, when Ichiro comes back? That way he can help us learn human and pokémon respectively." Elly proposed to Natalie.

"Yeah, better that way. But I remind you that Ichiro is a human so I doubt he knows much about pokémon writing." Said the younger Eevee giggling. "Perhaps you can help me?" She asked. Elly responded by nodding and opened her paw, stretching it towards her new friend. Natalie did the same, having some trouble trying to copy the posture of the older Eevee's paw.

They shook paws for a little bit, Elly helping Natalie to move her paw properly and then looked at the door. "Well… then it's settled! I think I'm going to go down to the kitchen to help Zed… and also check what he's cooking…" Elly got herself down from the table and opened the door with her powers.

"I'll keep reading a bit. I'll head down in a bit." Said the emerald eyed Eevee with a smile. she went to her book and got comfy to keep reading while drinking her juice. "And… If Zed doesn't want to tell what he's cooking but he tells you… you tell me, ok?" Nat joked to then dive back into her reading. Elly looked at her, winked with her right eye with a smile on her face and then headed out of the room, closing the door behind her.

* * *

On other part of the house, Luna had decided to take some more fresh air, so she went to the backyard. There she found Eric and Dark doing some practice or so it seemed to her since she saw the Zoroark with a purple ball of energy floating over his paw, similar to the one he had used to attack that Steelix, only this time it was smaller and it seemed that the Dark type was trying to concentrate on keeping it in shape. She decided to not bother them and walked past without a word, searching for something to do. It was starting to get boring for her, and this made her mind go back to the recent incident, the which she wanted to wipe out of her head. ' _I think I'll go for a walk around…_ ' She thought to then head to the nearby forest and walk into it. However, she did not notice a small Eevee heading out behind her. She stood still, staring at the two bipedal pokémon and the energy spheres they were controlling, her eyes and mouth wide open in awe and admiration. She shook her head and headed after the Vulpix once more, following her silently.

During her walking, the Vulpix started to remember. The first day she had been at the house it had a totally blue mood to ended up being because of Dark and Radius going missing. They had returned that same night, the Eevee sleeping on the arms of the one that disappeared being a Zorua and came back as a Zoroark for what she could grasp from the moment. The next day, Ichiro had taken both pokémon to a check up on the town's pokémon center. There they helped Dark with the burns on his upper paws, while Radius was mostly fine. When they returned home the pokémon played with the snow the whole afternoon. The Korel siblings enjoying it like the pups they were and still are. She smiled remembering that day and the ones after that. She had a great time, even being a Fire-type. Even Ichiro allowed himself to play with them, having to stop to rest and relax every now and then but the human bo always returned to the game after a few minutes.

On other paw, the human had offered her a place to sleep with him, as had done Radius and Shade. The three of them saying to her that they didn't want her to feel alone. ' _Ichiro sure does know how to make a pokémon feel welcomed, I'll give him that. He could befriend… maybe not all but most of the pokémon that would cross paths with him, I'm sure._ ' She thought walking calmly. ' _I wonder if he had thought on taking on his own journey sometime._ ' She kept thinking. ' _However… I get why it wouldn't be one of his life plans._ ' She ended, now knowing what she knows. Emily inched closer to where Luna was, sticking her head out from behind a tree, tip-toeing and moving between the trees and bushes, feeling like a true master of stealth. The fiery vixen kept deeply into her thoughts. She recalled this and that, from far back past to recent events while she walked. Her ears twitched when they catched any strange sounds but she wasn't paying it any mind. After some more minutes of walking, Luna reached a big tree and decided to lay at its shade to rest her paws a bit after so much walking she had done that day. It was then when she could allow herself to enjoy the gentle and fresh breath and the calm atmosphere of the forest, to the point that she fell asleep.

Emily looked at how the Vulpix laid down to relax, letting out an inaudible giggle. She waited until Luna was completely relaxed to start approaching silently, and once she was right next to her she blew air into her ear. Noticing this slight blowing, Lunca could feel each of her muscles trembling while she felt the air at her ear. A slight groan coming from her throat as she tilted her head to a side reflexively and lowered it slightly. Her ears were stright up for that and her tails rose in the air, not completely but… if not for the fur down there imagination would have not been needed at all. Emily noticed this and giggled lightly, getting up from the ground, making her way to… that region, and taking a look.

"Sweet! Now I get why males like doing this so much!" Emily commented, referring to those pervy males who tried to get those… 'angles'.

Luna blinked a few times, waking up when her body stopped shuddering and she yawned, stretching up like quadrupedal beings do, paws stretched and rear high, also tails stretching even higher up.

Emily got back up, annoyed. "Awww… and the view was so good too!" She pouted, looking away.

Luna jumped hearing her and turned to face the younger Eevee with a surprised face. "Emily! W-what are you doing here!?" She asked nervous. The Eevee's words still registering into the Vilpux' head.

"Well… I was suuuuuper bored in the house, and then I saw you sneaking out, so I decided to follow you here! And when I saw you fell asleep I snuck up to you and blew air into your ear and then…" She trailed off for a second. "Hmm… what is the thing called?" She asked herself out loud, since she never remembered the name of it.

"Wait! You WHAT!?" Luna barked all of a sudden. Her face getting a darker shade of red than the one her copper fur already had on its own.

"Yeah, that part that only females have! What is it called?" Emily asked once more, the name was now at the tip of her tongue…

"Emily! You can't go around looking at… THAT area of other pokémon! That's disrespectful and rude on your part!" Luna scolded her with a serious tone while also feeling uncomfortable. Even then she was redder than a tomato while she talked to the Eevee.

"Whaaaaaat?! But we both have that part! I thought you only had to be careful when there was a male around… did I do something wrong? I promise you the only one who has seen it was Nox… and that was an accident… although it could've been intentional… tell me, do you think he likes me? I think he likes me. He's always shooting me these weird looks…" The Eevee kept talking, blushing like a tomato as she noticed that the Vulpix was uncomfortable with this whole situation.

Luna stood looking at Emily, baffled by the sudden questions about the Houndour. Where did that came from all of a sudden? She shook her head in the end. "Do not change the topic, young pup! You just can't do those things!" Luna said after recovering from her bewilderment, the words being familiar to her, but she didn't notice how much at that moment. "Or you would be okay if someone was to put its nose under your tail? Even if it is another female?"

"Yeah! Wanna do it?" Emily started shifting. "Look I…" The Vulpix stopped her before she could move an inch, keeping her in that same spot.

"Don't you know what "intimacy" means!? Or at least what does mean that there are things that you just don't go around showing to others unless they are intimate partners!?" She asked, at her age, Luna already had an idea about that herself.

Emily looked skyward, thinking about it. "No… I don't think so… Wanna be my intimate partner?" Emily asked innocently.

Hearing this, Luna just stood there looking at her with her eyes big as watermelons and the mouth wide open, astonished. "Let's go back." Was all that she could make herself say at first. "And I don't want you to say ANYTHING more about this!" The Fire-type added with a slight snort and getting off of the Eevee. Luna started to walk back home, only stopping to wait for Emily to follow her when she didn't hear her pawsteps, making sure her six tails were well tucked down.' _This can't be more awkward…_ ' She thought starting to walk again.

Emily blinked repeatedly. "Eeeeeeeeh!? B-b-but…" The small Eevee tried to stutter out a response.

"No buts! Let's go!" The Vulpix insisted, wanting to go back to the household ASAP.

Emily began walking after her, huffing and muttering things. "You're a meanie… you need a male in your life…" Emily muttered to herself, but was loud enough for Luna to hear her.

Luna stopped her walking and looked at her firmly. However, that glare only lasted for a moment. "How do you know I like males?" She asked showing her a sided smirk and her firm expression turned into a… naughty one, but the Vulpix was trying to hold herself back and not pounce at the Eevee… and explain her some things.

Once back at the household, Luna walked with a little haste through the backyard, crossing with Eric on her way. "Eric, can I talk with you for a moment, please?" The Vulpix asked him while Emily started to head towards the house as her nose caught the scent of food coming from the kitchen.

Eric, who was watching all of Dark's movements closely, turned to face her for an instant, then backed away towards her, without lifting his eyes off of Dark's body. "Yeah? What's wrong, Luna?" He asked the fire type female.

"I need to talk with you and Elly about Emily" She said to him seriously to let him know it was a serious thing. "Can you take a break?" She asked afterwards.

The Riolu, however, responded with a negative. "I'm afraid not… Dark is really focused on this, and if we stop now we may not be able to get back where we are right now… can this wait for another time?" The Riolu asked the Vulpix. "I think Elly's in the kitchen, so… See if you can get her to help you." Eric suggested Luna, his eyes widening like plates. "Watch out, you're losing it!" Eric shouted at Dark as soon as he saw how the aura sphere in his claws became slightly bigger than normal.

"Ok. Just don't come tell me weird things." Said Luna starting to walk towards the kitchen in search of Elly while Dark tried to keep calm and make the sphere in his paws shrink a bit.

"AAAAAH! What are you doing?! You're going to ruin it!" Elly screamed. Zed was walking on the counter-top and sprinkling spices into a pot. The Zorua groaned loudly.

"For the love of Arceus, Elly! I'm the chef here, you're the helper! Let me do my job!" Zed responded, extremely angry.

Seeing this, Luna stopped and gulped. ' _Eh… I don't think it is a good idea to step into the fire… this time._ ' The six tailed vixen thought, debating himself if to go talk with Elly or… In the end she decided to go to the living room. It was best to let the boiler cool off.

Meanwhile at the backyard. "Hey! Emily!" Shade called the Eevee upon seeing her. "Wanna play with us with the ball?" She asked, playing with Radius and Natalie.

The small Eevee's tail swayed from side to side excitedly."Yayyyyy!" She squealed in delight, really excited as she ran after the other pokémon that were playing with the ball.

Shade waited until Emily was near to explain her the game. It was easy, she only had to pass the ball without letting it touch the ground and trying to make it hard for the others to reach the ball themselves. "Do you get how the game goes?" The Eevee with the bow on one ear asked the other smiling. Emily nodded energetically.

"Ok then. Pass the ball, Shade!" Radius said to his sister, eager to continue the game.

* * *

It was a calm afternoon. The sun was setting behind the mountains over the horizon to let the moon rise up with the stars. Bathed by the cinnamon coloured sunbeams, the large shadow of a barn covered the back of a young farmer, his messy hair had the same colour as chestnuts and was covered by an old straw hat with holes all over it, his skin tanned because of how long he worked out in the fields. His short sleeved undershirt, which covered a young preteen torso, was old, and the original pure white colour had slowly faded and was now tainted by a strange dirty yellow in some places, his dark blue trousers also worn out by use, the same repeating with his pair of well-worn grey trainers. His forehead was covered in small translucent pearls of sweat, and even though he was exhausted after a long day of working, he was satisfied with his work. He had done a lot that day, and had made a lot of progress regarding the berry recollection, which meant that he would be able to afford not working the next day. He stuck his right hand in a pocket in his trousers and pulled out a photograph. It was the image of a brunette girl, with similar clothing to his', except the straw hat, of course. He gently caressed the photo with a hopeful smile on his face. He stood up from the hay bale he was sitting on and looked around.

Behind him stood a large barn painted red, with some pieces and wooden beams showing a degrading white. Inside there were many more piles of hay, sacks filled with grain and wooden barrels full of berries, and one could also see small stables for the oxes they used for plowing. Behind him stood a large farmhouse, made out of wood, with two floors, and which had been painted white, but because of it's longevity and it's prolonged exposure to the elements, the paint was starting to disappear to reveal the old wood underneath. He could see the lively movement inside of the house through the windows, so he decided to hide the photo inside his pocket and started heading to the house.

It was then, however, when he heard a deafening sound. as if someone had pulled the trigger of a gun right next to him, and the sky quickly darkened, the earth shaking violently. His blood froze and a shiver of uneasiness and fear coursed through his body, thinking that it was yet another earthquake, staring at both the barn and the house in fear that they might crumble down. However, that wasn't what happened, but instead his eyes bared witness to how the earth was split in half between the two houses, lightning bolts striking down to the ground. The boy looked up, his eyes opening as wide as plates as he saw pitch black clouds that had appeared in an instant, and that only seemed to be discharging electricity, rather than water like usual. The howls and screeches of the livestock made the fear running through his veins ever more intense, and the earth shook once more, this time losing his balance and falling to the ground, losing sight of that rip. He got back up quickly, and just like the earthquake had begun, it stopped slowly, along with the clouds that covered the sky. He looked at the crack…

And saw that it was a crack no more, but rather a large hole in the ground, and inside that hole.. He saw some kind of weird black mass, dark as coal. The boy looked at the sky again, almost clear now as the clouds moved away, and then looked at the two buildings. Everything seemed perfectly fine, with exception of that hole of what seemed to be petrol in the ground. His face lit up. Could it be just that? That fabled "black gold" that seemed to make everyone filthy rich? He was curious to see what that was exactly, yet he was afraid. However, he doubted a mere gooey liquid could harm him that much as long as he didn't drink it or touch it…

He slowly inched towards it, holding his breath and tiptoeing, as if that thing could hear him. It was once he was right next to it that he saw some other details. First of all, which was the one that alarmed him the most, was that it didn't smell at all, and from what he knew oil had a very distinctive smell. Second of all, he could see that the ground beneath him, the areas which were directly touching against the black mass were falling apart little by little and being dissolved in that mass, a strange black fume ascending, that still didn't smell like anything at all. He held his breath, believing it could be poisonous, and then saw one final detail that convinced him that this thing was definitely not oil: It was bubbling, a black bubble growing on the surface of the liquid. It was then when he truly felt he was in danger, his whole body shaking uncontrollably as if he was standing on death's doorstep. And it was in that precise moment, that the bubble burst.

Liquid flew everywhere, and that included the face and body of the unlucky kid. As soon as it touched his body and skin, he felt a pain much more intense than anything he had felt in his life, as if he was being burnt alive. He started screaming as loud as he could, touching his face to try and get that liquid off of him, but as soon as he grazed it his hands also started burning. He slowly felt how everything went numb, and fell to the ground, his body twitching in agony, his screams fading. The last thing the boy heard before he ceased to live where the screams of humans and steps heading towards him. Right next to him, the same photo with girl was on the ground, on top of a single drop of that black gulch. Slowly, the photo started to disintegrate and melt, until there was nothing left of it, nor the black liquid.

* * *

Red and orange tones signaled the fall of twilight over the region. A van stopped by the house. The driver turned off the Engine and stepped out of the vehicle, putting on a hood from his dark leather jacket as to darken his face so it was hard to see it. A Vaporeon jumped out of the window of the backseat of the van and landed softly on the ground, to then follow the hooded man. The man wore dark clothes. A leather black leather jacket, a pair of trousers and beige coloured military boots was all that could be seen of his clothes, asides from the hood of the jacket.

They stopped by a big house, your typical country house far away from the city. However, instead of heading towards the entrance of this house, the man and the pokémon headed towards the back of the house. There was a pool, and inside it one could see chains and cuffs attached to the walls and the floor and no stairs to get out of the pool. Vaporeon immediately put on a serious and firm face, before facing into the pool and seeing a man only dressed in a swimming short, tied to the pool' floor by the cuffs on both arms and legs. There was some water in the pool, but not enough to cover the man. The Water-type use its ice beam to make up an ice stair so the hooded men in black could step into the pool. He didn't mind his boots getting wet, he just wanted to make this other man talk! Vaporeon stood besides the hooded figure.

The man chained to the floor was around his thirties, pale skin reddened by a long exposition to the sun while unprotected, black eyes showing fear and fixated on the hooded man over him, his hair was also of dark tones.

"You know what I want." The men in black said with an icy tone, putting a foot over one of the sun burns on the skin, making the trapped man scream in pain, but he wouldn't talk… That is… until Vaporeon started to fill up the pool using Hydro pump. It wasn't that big of a pool, maybe five square meters, so it wasn't hard for him to fill it up with that move.

"I'll talk! Please! I'll talk but tell him to stop, please!" The trapped man wailed. The water-type stopped his move hearing this, the water reaching higher but only to the point of covering the trapped man's ears. "We have… a lab… I don't know where, I swear! They take them there… for experiments. There you can find someone that knows more than me, but I don't know anything more! Please let me go!" The trapped man begged.

The man in the hood just turned around and walked without saying anything more, the Vaporeon walked with him and both of them stepped out of the pool using the ice stairs, which the pokémon let melt, this making the pool get more filled. If not because the trapped man raised his head it would have been submerged.

Vaporeon only needed a look fro the man by his side before using Hydro pump once more and started to fill up the pool. He raised the water level until the surface was just above the trapped man's face. He only needed to pull some more and he would be able to breathe… but he would never reach the surface. Man and pokémon stood there, watching how the trapped man struggled to break free, trying to reach the oxygen his body demanded so fiercely after some seconds… Until he could hold it no more and breathed in, his lungs filling with water. His body stopped moving slowly as the seconds went by… Until there was no more movement. Only then did the hooded man and the Vaporeon went back to the van, driving away from that place.

* * *

"Now we are ready to sail for the Horn,

Weigh hey, roll and go!

Our boots and our clothes, boys, are all the pawl,

To be rollicking randy dandy-O!

Heave a pawl, O Heave away!

Weigh hey, roll and go!

The anchor's on board and the cable's all stored,

To be rollicking randy dandy-O!"

Riolu was singing at the top of his lungs at the same time as he listened to the sea shanty through his earplugs, connected to his poké-nav. The Riolu was trying his hardest to not call home. He wanted his return to be a surprise, and he was almost there too… after a whole week out on the sea. He was standing on the ship's deck at the moment, the rest of the passengers asleep, and since the cabins were pretty far away he wasn't bothering anyone with his singing, unless they walked near where he was. The Riolu was making the most of the night, unable to sleep. Soon, they would arrive at his home, and the only thing left from there would be to walk home! He was really excited… and he really wanted to call too, but he preferred to leave it as a surprise for them.

The young Fighting-type was about to pick up his poké-nav. However, while he was switching the songs, he heard something, making him stop the next song, the Riolu looked around, trying to spot the source of that one noise. The sky was clear and the moon was shedding a strong light onto the earth, even though it wasn't full. The same noise reached his ears again, and the Riolu looked up and the sky as he recognized the sound, just in time to see the sky blue sheen and elegance of Shon's feathers. The Articuno flew over the ship, heading to the island they were headed too. A few seconds later, clouds started forming in the sky, and snow started falling on the ship, the Riolu smiling as he saw this, more clouds forming as the ice type legendary flew. " _One last snowfall this winter, eh?"_ The Riolu thought with a wide smile on his muzzle, knowing that the next day was gonna be fun.

Shon flew over the archipelago one last time for that season, granting the whole place one last white day. The snowfall would only last for a few hours, but the resulting coat of snow would cover everything for the rest of the next day. Once his work was done, the legendary flew away into the night.

Riolu meanwhile was enjoying the small amount of snow that had fallen and was accumulating on the ship's deck. His music started playing again as the young pokémon started throwing snowballs at the hammocks, trying to nail them right on the edges. It wasn't that much, considering the small amount of snow he had at his disposal, but as time went on, more and more snow was piling up, giving him the opportunity to entertain himself with more and more things. Even other pokémon and humans that were either standing outside or that were sleeping and had woken up for whatever reason were getting out to the deck to see as the snow fell, the humans wearing as much clothing as they could, cubs not wasting any time to start playing games in the snow. Games that the young Riolu didn't waste any time on joining in with the other cubs, humans and pokémon.

* * *

Elly was awoken by a slight movement, her eyes slowly opening and blinking. Her visibility was limited because of the poor lighting inside of the room, but even then she distinguished the shape of a rather familiar Shinx.

"Hey Elly, it's your turn. I'm going to bed." Lucy told the Eevee, who stayed where she was: lying on a mattress, covered by a sheet and embraced by Eric's strong arms. She was very comfy in there, and the temperature was ideal, which made it even harder to move, in the sense that she lacked the determination to do so.

"Hmm… but it feels so good in here… can't you wait for a few more minutes?" Elly asked her best friend, who responded by shaking her head.

"Hey, I also have a bed and an adorable furball with whom to cuddle, Elly. So c'mon, get up and don't complain, because you've treated me poorly today." The Shinx complained.

The Eevee got up from the bed, looking as if she had been offended. "What? I've been treating you poorly? Can you tell me what's so bad about sending you to look for Serge, who is in a park several kilometers from this house, with the added benefit of having to endure his complaining the whole way?" Elly asked ironically. The electric type responded with an annoyed look, while Elly giggled. "Hey, look at the bright side: At least you heard him singing dramatically." Elly joked while trying to slip away from Eric's strong grip around her body.

Lucy smiled. "Well… ok, it was all worth it just for seeing that live… I'm serious. If you guys were losing it just hearing him screaming, if you saw him you would've died from laughter." Lucy said, sitting on the ground and raising her paws over her head, shaking them. "'Bastards! How could you do this to meeeee!'" She mimicked the Pidgeot's voice, albeit keeping the volume down, to prevent waking up their companions from waking up.

Elly kept herself from laughing as she pulled the sheets off of her and sat in front of her friend. "Well… good night." Lucy told the blue eyed Eevee, hugging her lightly. The Eevee returned the gesture.

"Good night to you as well." She said before Lucy headed to her bed, where Zed was already peacefully sleeping. The Shinx lifted the sheet with her muzzle and snuck under and inside, cuddling the Zorua, though being careful to not wake him up. Elly stretched her limbs and placed the sheet on top of Eric, but as she did this the Riolu slowly woke up. He immediately noticed that the furry Eevee that was usually next to him was gone, tapped the mattress and desperately looked for her.

"Elly?" He called her, sleepy. The Eevee turned around and smiled. "Where are you going? Don't leave me alone…" He pleaded through his drowsiness.

Elly tip-toed in front of him and kissed his forehead. "It's my turn to watch, but don't worry, I'll wake Jake later and I'll come sleep with you again. I promise, ok?" Elly whispered into his ear. The Riolu visibly relaxed and nodded, closing his eyes once more and laying on his side, whilst a wide smile spread across her face and headed towards the door. They had finally given them permission to walk around the house during the night, which was a relief. She opened the door with her powers, went out to the hallway, and slowly closed behind her, careful enough to not make too much noise. Once outside, she sat at the end of the hallway, and even though it was really dark, she didn't have any difficulties to see, although she relied more on her hearing.

Hadrim and the three Kaiser humans came back right after dinner time, when they all were sited on the table and ready to enjoy dessert. The Espeon had gone to bed right after having his dinner, but not before finding out who prepared the food and congratulate him for the great meal. He had even left his plate clean! The humans ate from the same food and had a similar reaction, more congratulation words flying towards the Zorua's ears, which only made the Zorua feel ashamed, yet prideful of his work. The day had been too long and this was the reason for everyone to go to bed when they had finished eating.

However, not everyone had enjoyed a full night sleep. Ichiro woke up a few hours later. the human was still tired, but sleep would just not come to him again even if he tried. In the end, he decided to get up and go for a midnight snack and drink. The boy was wearing only his pajama pants and had his chest to the cool night air and he was also barefooted. When he stood he took the sheet and put it over himself. He petted Shade and Radius a bit to calm them down to then cover them with the blanket. After that he went out of the room and closed the door slowly behind him as to avoid waking them up to then turn on the lights of the hallway.

It had been a couple of hours since she had begun her turn, and Elly noticed the human coming out of his room the moment he did, but when he turned on the lights, the Eevee was blinded by the light.

"Arceus! What the…" She blinked a few times and looked at Ichiro, her eyes getting used to the light. "Ichiro… what are you doing up this late?! After what happened today you should be sleeping." The Eevee said, getting up from her spot and approaching the human boy. He was wearing a pair of very interesting trousers alone, but nothing to cover his bare chest. "And you're going to catch something if you stay like that." She warned.

The boy chuckled hearing her, turning to her and lowering himself to the ground out of courtesy. "Well, I just woke up and can't fall back asleep, so I thought I could go take a midnight snack." He answered to her first question. "And hey! I'm hot!" He said about the second part, yet he covered himself a bit more with the sheet. "Want a snack as well?" he asked her.

Elly looked at him, surprised. "After the feast we had tonight? I think I'll pass… although I have no idea of what you guys consider a midnight snack… Just be careful going down the steps." The Eevee said while she sat down again. It was much easier to see with the lights on.

"Yes, mom." The boy joked a bit while he stood up and started to go down the stairs grabbing strongly onto the banister and chuckling under his breath. Elly shot him a murderous glare, but found herself smiling because of the similarities.

After this, Ichiro reached the kitchen and started looking into the cupboards until he found something that made his eyes spark. In one of the stands there was a chocolate tablet, the packet being still sealed. He took the bar and a glass of water to then go back up. Once there he stopped and opened the package of chocolate. "Hey. Do you want some?" He asked her separating a line of pieces to then take one out of that line and he offered it to her.

Elly eyed the chocolate, grabbing it with her mind. "What is this?" She asked, looking at it and smelling. It smelled really sweet, and it made her mouth water.

"It is chocolate, just that instead of liquid, like the one for the pancakes this morning, it is solid and in a bar." Explained her calmly. "By the way, Psychic powers? That's rare to see on an Eevee. But the world is full of surprises." He commented, smiling. He was surprised, indeed, but he didn't make a big deal out of it.

"Oh… uh.. well, it's a long story, but… I inherited them from my mother. I've been hiding them because I didn't want to look like a freak, but… considering how south things went this morning I decided it was time to use them. Needless to say, those who didn't know were more than shocked." Elly opened her mouth, about to take a bite of out the chocolate.

"If you don't want me to, I won't ask." He said to her after nodding to her explanation, not wanting to make the blue eyed Eevee uncomfortable.

Elly moved the food away from her. "Hey, it's alright. I don't feel bad, but… honestly, I just don't know how it happened exactly… Anyways, let's try this thing out." She repeated herself, biting off half of the piece. Immediately her eyes went wide open, like plates, her ears instantly perking up. It was sweet. Really sweet. She started drooling and chewed hungrily what was in her mouth, enjoying the flavour as it spread throughout her tongue and her taste buds. She pushed the rest of the chocolate into her mouth and started munching on it. "Arceus… What is this?! This is so good! It's the best thing I've eaten in my life!" Elly exclaimed with her mouth full, her words barely intelligible.

Ichiro chuckled gently seeing her like that and offered her the rest of the pieces of the line. Elly took the line of chocolate without a second thought and started to eat it, enjoying the flavour immensely. "If you want more, come in. I won't be able to eat the whole bar myself." He invited her with a smile on his face.

Elly actually considered it, and even though her body was screaming at her to get more of that sweet and delicious substance, she declined the offer, shaking her head. "Sorry but… I'm on guard duty tonight, and… I've got someone else waiting for me." Elly responded with a huge smile. "But can you keep some for tomorrow, in case there's leftovers?" Her smile grew wider.

"I don't know why you do it. And I won't ask. It is not my business after all. But sure, I can save some for you." He said to her with the same smile and then he went back into his room, turning off the hallway's lights when he went in and closed the door. After that he went to his computer and moved the mouse to make it start off and he got comfortable to watch videos in Pokétube until he could go to sleep again.

Elly smiled as he got inside of his room and turned off the lights. As soon as she was alone in the hallway, all the happiness from her face disappeared as she looked out the window. Although unintentionally, the boy had reminded her why she was standing guard in the first place. "Pray… pray that you never know." The Eevee mumbled under her breath. She stood still for the rest of her round, and even more than she should, until the door to their room opened, Jake stepping out.

"Elly… You have already been guarding for as long as you needed. You can go to bed now, I will stay awake until sunrise." The ice type advised Elly.

Elly was reluctant at first, but in the end leaned towards listening to what he said. After all, she had promised Eric. The Eevee wished Jake good luck, who answered her with a simple "Good night", and then she headed inside the room, making a beeline for her bed with her mate. She grabbed the sheet with her powers and snuck inside as gently as she could, cuddling up against Eric as much as she could, waking him up almost immediately, his eyes meeting hers. He smiled and placed his arms around her petite shape, hugging her, then gently nuzzling her, the Eevee returning the affection tenderly, purring in the meantime.

Eric took the opportunity to peck her lips with his, and she returned the kiss, the Riolu detected a strange flavour in her mouth. "Hey… did ya eat something? You're sweeter than normal…" The fighting type commented as he briefly broke the kiss, then resumed it. Elly broke the kiss to stare at his eyes, blushing madly for two reasons: One of them was that she had been caught after eating the chocolate, but the second one was that he had somehow felt it.

"Yeah… Ichiro fed me some "chocolate". It was really good, but… how'd you know?" She asked, although she already knew the answer, she just wanted to hear him whisper it.

The Riolu smiled again. "Cuz I've kissed you so much I can feel it…" And immediately after that he kissed her again. They cuddled and teased eachother for a few minutes before they finally fell asleep together.

* * *

Luna was the first to wake up the next morning. She was sleeping in a corner of Ichiro's room. On one side she wanted some company, but on other she didn't feel with enough confidence as to share the same bed with after the human boy prepared a nice and comfy place for her to sleep on. And she slept comfortable from that day on… but she would like more company… it's like a never ending circle she can't get out without a little push.

The morning was cloudless if the sunlight that came in from the window was something to go by. The Vulpix stretched out and then approached the window as to see how had the day started. She always did that to know what had happened during the last hours of the night. In case it had rained and the area near the house was muddy. However, what she saw made her fully wake up in an instant. Her mouth remained wide open and gaping for a few minutes until she managed to recover from the surprise and her tails started to wag in a frenzy from side to side."IT SNOWED!" She barked, almost squealing in happiness and the noise made Shade and Radius wake up with a start.

The Vulpix's screaming didn't only wake up the 'Vee siblings, but also shook Jake out of his trance, who was so focused on watching the hallway that he had almost fallen asleep. However, he perfectly understood the fire type's screaming, got up and quickly walked over to the window, to confirm her screaming. She wasn't lying. Everything outside was coated in white, and the windows were covered in a thin layer of frost that distorted the images his eyes saw, but he knew very well that it had indeed snowed, that much was obvious at that point.

He headed to their bedroom, his heart in his fist, an unknown anxiety and happiness taking hold of his body whilst he suddenly opened the door. He found himself standing in front of seven pokémon, the faces of which showed a mixture of drowsiness and confusion. He didn't really know what to say or how to excuse that sudden entrance without saying the words that followed.

"It appears that while we were sleeping it has snowed." He informed everyone. Lucy was the first one to react, dashing to the window and looking outside. "We should take the opportunity to distract ourselves from our problems and bond with our hosts." The Sneasel followed, ignoring the gale that followed Lucy's departure from the room at absurd speeds. "Now that all has been said, I shall be looking for a source of ice. If you'll excuse me." Once he finished, the Sneasel turned around and left, his pace a little too fast for him.

Eric and Elly looked at the door, flabbergasted, although really happy to hear that it had snowed. Serge shared that enthusiasm. "Yeah baby! Finally, something good happens! Wait for me, Jake, I also want to enjoy the snow!" He shouted, running after his companion, almost as if he was as young as the Sneasel himself. Zed ran out of the room, pleading the flying type to wait for him, Emily leaving right after the Zorua. Elly got up from bed, Eric right besides her, the duo leaving the room calmly, poking their heads out to the hallway, the only one staying inside of his bed being Nox, who was grumbling.

Long story short, the hallway suffered a bit of a stampede. Not only because of the majority of Team Star "moderately" walking out of their room and towards the backyard, but also because Shade, Radius and Luna ran like crazy to enjoy the white blanket that had been granted to them on this day. Ichiro on the other hand took his time since the human had to get well wrapped up to endure the cold outside. He dressed up with a tracksuit pants, wool socks, high boots that reached only over his ankles and tightly tied; and a long sleeve white shirt. It was then that he saw a Riolu and an Eevee walking in front of his door. Given her size his mind immediately went for one option. "Oh! Hey, Elly." He called her approaching his desk and picking up half chocolate bar that he had not eaten the night before, the outer package was missing but the chocolate was still covered by the aluminium foil cover. "Do you want some?" The boy asked once he had her attention, offering her the full half of the bar. "With what we ate last night there is not enough for everyone. Maybe you two can share what's left of this bar." He offered to the both of them this time.

Eric looked at the human, a little confused, since he didn't know what they were talking about. However, Elly made the decision for him. "Yes! Thank you!" She responded when she was offered, grabbing it with her powers. She split it in two halves whilst she removed the paper that protected the food itself, giving one of the halves to her mate, a huge smile on her face. "C'mon, try it out! You're gonna love it!" She said. The Riolu grabbed the piece he was offered, doubting he'd like it as much as she did. He took a bite…

"Hmmmm… Not bad. Too sweet for my tastes, but it's not bad at all… is this the famous chocolate you told me about last night?" He asked his mate, who didn't answer immediately, since she was too busy stuffing her mouth full of chocolate. Eric glared at her, worried. "Hey… does that make you fat?" The Riolu asked, since as far as he remembered those kinds of really sweet foods were excessively fattening… However, she merely shrugged in response.

While they were talking, Ichiro kept getting ready himself. He put on a pull over. the cloth was red colored at the waist level and cream colored at shoulder and chest level. At stomach height it had a yellow colored diamond. While on the back side of the cloth it was only read down and cream up, with a feather design separating both colours. And to top his outfit for playing in the snow, the boy put on some black , when he was ready and about to get out of his room, Daniel came to it and stopped at his door, trying to not bother the two pokémon enjoying the chocolate.

"Ichiro. You can't go out today." He said with a firm tone. Making his son stare at him with a shocked face, but it soon changed into a smile.

"You are joking, right? Very funny, dad." He answered chuckling a bit, but seeing that the adult was not even smirking… "What? Why!?" He asked.

"You know what happened yesterday." Daniel said. He was about to continue but the boy interrupted him.

"Playing with the snow had never given me any troubles!" Ichi protested.

"Nor had you have a heart attack the day before it snowed!" The father said back. "Look, like it or not, you are not going out today and that's final!" He sentenced and went away, trying to close the argument this way.

Ichiro had nothing to say to the last thing his father had said. The boy just sit down on the bad and took of the gloves. "It is the last day of Winter…" He finally found an answer but it was already too late.

The young human tried to not get upset over this, breathing deep, sad and crying slightly for the prohibition of going out that day. He was trying not to explode but… he just couldn't stand it. And knowing why he was not allowed outside only frustrated him even more. Ichi ended up throwing the gloves away and stomping on the floor to try and vent out. He ended even punching a wall and letting out a low, frustrated grunt. The hit to the wall was more painful for him than for anything else. Given the fact that his hand was shaking after the punch. After this the boy sti back on the bed. He put the hand that he didn't use to punch the wall over his chest. It hurt. And he had only had a little outburst. Usually it wasn't enough to even make him feel any pain, but this time it hurt. This only served to give more reason to his father. His heart had still not recovered from yesterday's attack. The boy knew this and yet… he wanted to go out and play with his friends, but he couldn't. In the end he stood where he was, with his face on his hands. After all, Ichiro was still an adolescent that wanted to have fun with his friends.

Eric and Elly saw how the boy stayed in his room, and since they knew that they couldn't do anything about it, they decided to go outside with the rest and enjoy the snow. They both went down the stairs, bothered by Daniel's decision. "That sucks… and he was really excited too. Do you think we should go and cheer him up a bit?" Eric asked, since he didn't knew what to do. Elly thought about it.

"Well… we shouldn't really get involved in these affairs, since we aren't part of the family… but at the very least we should ask him how he's feeling." Elly responded, the Riolu agreeing with her with a nod. The two pokémon turned around and headed back up to Ichiro's room.

"Hey Ichiro… are you alright? We heard all of it, so… you're not gonna be able to go out today?" She asked the human, a little sad, her ears dropping down. Eric leaned forward to try see into the room, putting his paws on top of his mate's head, which in turn angered the Eevee as she was forced to bend down because of her partner's weight. She shook him off violently. "Eric don't get on me!" She screamed, the Riolu backing off, getting behind her and looking at the human.

When they came back, Ichiro was not alone. Dark was sitting on the bed by his side and Natalie was laying on the human's lap, letting him pet her. She shifted her face away when she saw Eric and Elly appearing at the doorway so they couldn't see the blush on her checks. she wasn't used to let anyone pet her like this, with the exception of Dark, but still she didn't move away from her spot. dark on his part looked at the couple and bowed his head to them in a silent greeting.

"Yeah… I'm fine." Ichiro answered sniffing a bit and sighing. His eyes were slightly damp with tears. "Dad is right. I can't play in the snow today." He said. "It irks me a lot since I wanted to spend the day with you all. But if can't even endure a little fit without feeling pain it is best for me to stay in the house and relax." The boy finished.

Dark looked at Ichiro and put a paw on the human's shoulder. After this his eyes emitted a little flash and an illusory cloud appeared out of thin air in front of them. The cloud slowly getting into the shape of human letters. Since the Kaiser family had never had a Zorua or a Zoroark living with them, without Luna or Hadrim near to act as translators, the Zoroark had to get creative to be able to talk to the boy.

"Hey. Frist thing is your health." Natalie read when her brother tapped her on the head a couple times. Even if Ichiro could read the message himself. While she did this, the Zoroark put a paw on the human's chest, and Natalie kept going. "Then, when you are recovered we can seek for something to do together, ok?" It was the Zoroark's proposition, offering the boy a smile when he looked at the bipedal fox.

Ichiro only could smile back at him and nodded. "Of course. But come on, go out and enjoy the snow. I don't want to spoil your fun just because of me not being allowed outside." he said to the four Pokémon. "By the way, Eric. How was the chocolate? Do you like it?" The boy asked the Riolu with a renewed smile on his face.

The fighting type responded with a smile. "Yeah, it was pretty good… Well, if that's the case, then we'll be heading down… See you later, Ichiro." The jackal said whilst he turned around, Elly saying goodbye and heading after Eric.

The duo headed to the stairs and began walking down. He looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Hey… what was that about not getting on you?" He asked the Eevee, who sighed.

"Ok… I know that the scream was a little excessive, but the thing was that I was in this really awkward position, and then you walk up and get on me. The only thing that could've happened there was us falling to the ground." Elly explained to the Riolu, who was still a little angry. "I'm sorry" She added with a gentle nuzzle. He sighed and decided to forgive her.

"Hey, it's alright, but don't scream like that out of nowhere, ok? And besides… if you don't like it when I get on you, it's ok. Although I thought you liked that position…" The Riolu said this last part with a huge grin on his face, Elly blushing madly.

"Arceus Eric! Not here, anyone could listen in!" She responded, looking all around in case someone was close by. Eric gave her a teasing look, which she immediately noticed. "Someone's a little eager, aren't they?" She asked in a low whisper, returning the tease, making the male blush. "Well, we'll find some time for us…" She rubbed her waist against his', giggling a little bit. "But I think we should focus on just playing and relaxing for the time being, because I've never seen this much snow in one place." She mentioned to the Riolu, trying to change the conversation's topic.

"Well, we do live at the coast, so it's normal that we don't see too much snow… but yeah, let's take advantage of the opportunity today and enjoy it as much as possible. As far as I know Jake was really excited to do something with ice, and I think I know what it may be…" Eric wondered as they went down the last step and walked through the kitchen. Since they had eaten that chocolate, they didn't grab anything to eat, and instead headed out to the backyard.

The first thing they saw as soon as they went out were Zed and Lucy rolling around the snow, probably trying to trap the other and bury them. Zed jumped on Lucy, snow flying everywhere, whilst Serge was just laying down on his back, moving his wings and legs, making shapes in the snow, and Jake was nowhere in sight, but they guessed he wasn't too far away from the house. Dark and Natalie came out of the house just a moment after, and stopped besides the pair. They stood there, looking to see what the others were doing. Shade and Radius where digging holes under the snow as if they were moles, poking their heads out from various holes on it while Luna tried to catch one of them, having little to no success.

"Watch out!" Hadrim's voice came to their ears from above. Hearing him, Dark looked up, as well as Eric. Both saw the Espeon with a smile… an unusual smile on him. It leaned towards… sly. After this, the sapphire on his forehead flashed for an instant and part of the snow that was on the roof fell over the four Pokémon bellow.

Eric swore under his breath and got away from where the snow was about to land, whilst Elly made a small barrier around herself to protect herself alone. Dark immediately leaned over Natalie to cover her, while she let out a little squeal of surprise, curling to protect herself. They were all covered by the snow, with exception of Eric, who found himself with his upper body outside of the snow, his legs buried underneath the white mass, lying on his chest. From above, Hadrim let out a little chuckle. He was enjoying the moment like a little cub that just made the best prank of his arsenal. However, he got payed back not long after, in the form of a snowball impacting him right on the face while he laughed. Dark stood up from the snow with snowballs in both paws and threw one at the Espeon.

"This is a call for a snow war!" The Zoroark said with a defiant tone, throwing the other ball towards the Psychic-type, who only used his powers to catch the ball and throw it back at the Dark-Type. Dark covered himself with his arms, the ball impacting on them.

"Why not, then?" Hadrim answered calmly, but with a smirk, ready to get into the fight.

Elly managed to push her head out from under the snow and looked up, her eyes fixating on the culprit of that avalanche. "Hey, that's not nice." She said, finding it difficult to get out from underneath the pile of snow on her own. Eric managed to crawl out from where he was and let out sigh of relief, only for her mate to liberate herself of her snowy prison and land on top of him. They both let out a groan of pain, and the Riolu pushed the Eevee off him.

"Yeah… this isn't the best way to treat your guests, but if it's a fight you want…" Eric crouched down to grab snow and toss it at Hadrim, trying to do it as fast as possible so that he couldn't react, imitating the Zoroark's response.

"Come on, Eric. Have some fun." The Espeon answered from above. He saw the Riolu picking up snow and smiled. Without a word, Had let the snow fall yet again over them.

This time, Dark picked up Natalie and gave a backwards jump to escape the falling snow, yet he almost got caught under it a second time ' _Well… I'll give him that it is a funny way to clean the roof_ ' The Zoroark thought, now at a distance being able to see that most of the roof was clean of snow, with the exception of the spot where the Espeon stood. Eric opened his mouth to say something, but the words didn't escape his mouth, as it was closed by a bunch of snow that fell on top of him, Elly too far away to even be affected by this new attack, although she did laugh as soon as she saw the Riolu's new predicament. "Well, you're not gonna win this fight if you keep going like this, you dummy." Elly advised her mate.

Eric's head popped out of the snow, spitting out whatever had gone into his mouth and looked at the Eevee, shaking it off. "Hey, whose side are you on?" He asked, receiving a wide smile as an answer.

"Well, I don't know… are we going to fight or are these declarations of war just going to be simple threats? I just can't decide…" The Eevee followed, her eyes giving out a faint blue light.

Hadrim was on guard for whatever attempt at a surprise attack from them. However, he made the mistake of forgetting the siblings, who he had also dragged into his little prank. Luckily for him, Dark's next snow ball missed the Espeon by a long gape.

"That accuracy, lil' bro." Natalie teased him slightly.

"Well. You are most welcome to try yourself." He offered and she only smiled. She sat down and started to make a snowball with her paws. Once she had it ready, she stood sideways and used her tail to hit the ball and send it towards the Espeon, also making some snow rise from the floor. Hadrim however, took it with his psychic once again and held it.

"Come on. You can do better than this." He teased them smiling, downing his guard without realizing.

Elly smiled. "Alright, I'll take that as a yes…" Immediately after that, she lifted a lot of snow that was behind her, forming a bunch of snowballs of different sizes, which she then began throwing at high speeds against the Espeon, but more than half of them flew towards Dark and his sister.

Natalie saw this coming. "Dark! Duck!" She said while lowering herself to the ground.

The Zoroark did exactly that. Both of them trying to avoid the snow rain while at the same time, they tried to build up a snow wall in front of them. At the same time, Hadrim used his own psychic abilities to lift some snow from the ground to form a protective shield over himself, but he wasn't able to escape a good amount of hits since he was not prepared for it to begin with.

The others stood there, watching this. Shade and Radius decided to join in the fight. Both Eevee dug under the snow and decided to go over to Eric and Elly. their intention was to dig a hole under them to make them fall down and then hit them with snowballs while they got out of the holes.

Lucy and Zed took notice of what was about to go down, but first they weighed their options… or rather Lucy took the decision concerning whose side they were on. Taking into account how badly Elly had treated her the previous day… it was about time for some long due revenge. She headed to where Elly and Eric were, running as fast as she could, but once she was right next to them she stopped on the spot, sliding on the snow and launching all of the snow in front of her, both of her victims unable to react in time.

"What the-?!" Eric opened his mouth to speak, but it was filled up with snow once again, Elly screaming as she was covered in snow. She pushed her head out immediately and looked at the Shinx, who was sticking her tongue out at her.

"That's for what you did to me yesterday! Prepare to eat snow!" The electric type said whilst she ran to where Dark and Natalie were, getting behind their improvised snow wall, Zed following her, although he wasn't quite sure this had been a good idea.

Dark was still trying to build the snow wall, but that little moment of rest had provided a bunch of help and he could speed up the building, even more with Natalie helping him the best she could.

"Hey, a bit of help would be appreciated." the Zoroark asked to the new ones behind the protection he was building. Zed and Lucy got to work and helped with the wall by pushing the snow with their paws. However, a few moments after, two Eevee appeared out of the snow behind them. Both of them had one eye each glowing a dark blue colour.

"Hi!" Shade said while snowballs started to come out of the holes the both of them had come out off, staying floating behind both Vee siblings.

"Do you need more snow? Here you have a bit!" Radius said with a mischievous smile.

After this, both Eevee started to throw the balls at them using their tails while some of the balls flew at them by themselves. The reason for all this was that Hadrim was using one eye of each of his kits to see and be able to throw all of those snowballs towards the others while he stood calmly behind his snow shield.

Elly decided to get serious, her eyes glowing intensely as she grabbed all the snow around her, forming a snowball that was just as big as Dark, then placed it on the ground and made it roll towards his enemies at high velocities, rolling on the snow, making itself bigger as it advanced.

"Giant Ball!" Dark warned them all. Everyone behind the cover had to run from there. the little snow wall ended up crashed and some of the ones cover behind weren't fast enough to escape. Dark for example, ended getting the ball rolling over him. Before Elly could get too excited, she received a snowball to the back of the head. Immediately after this, they noticed they were out in the open, and headed to the trees that surrounded the house and used them as cover from the which to throw more balls.

It had been Luca, who was hiding behind a corner of the house to use it as cover. Luna was with her and had one snowball on each of her tails, her natural body heat starting to melt the snow but the balls kept good enough. Emily was behind them, although she wasn't doing much to help the cause, hiding behind the Lucario. Before any of the three females could do anything, Lucy appeared behind them, with Zed on her back. The Zorua was carrying a pile of snow, but as soon as she stopped, all of the snow flew forwards and hit them from the back, adding to the snow that flew forwards when Lucy stopped on the spot, completely burying Emily and Luna, with Luca being partially covered. Before they could do anything, the two devils left as quickly as they came.

Luna, Emily and Luca let out a little scream of surprise for Electric and Dark couple. The Lucario having it easier to get out of the snow since she was only half buried, while Luna managed to push her head out of the snow, breathing in quick for air. Emily took a bit more of time to poke her head out of the snow, breathing in deep when she did.

Eric started picking up snow and started making a huge snowball, carrying it around with one arm. He looked at Serge and used their crystals. " _Hey, a little bit of help would be appreciated."_ His words reached the Pidgeot's mind, who got up from the snow, bored of making shapes with ihs body. " _If you can, grab this and throw it on Hadrim! He's on the roof!"_ He ordered the bird, who gave him a huge smile, started running and took flight, turning around in the air to gain some height. He then dive bombed towards Eric, grabbed the ball with his claws and shot up, even with the added weight of the snow, then let go of the ball when he went past Hadrim.

"Snow storm!" Serge shouted at the top of his lungs, the ball on top of Hadrim.

The Espeon lost concentration for that but he had no time to see over his snow barrier before getting hit by the big snowball and get thrown down from the roof. The snowballs that he was holding fell to the floor and Shade's and Radius' glowing eyes went back to normal. the psychic type fell over the snow piles he had created on the floor by throwing the snow over the others before, getting buried himself there. Serge landed back on the floor and hurried to get to cover with Eric and Elly by the treeline, where the couple had retreated to.

After a bit more of time, all groups and alliances had their covers ready and were getting some snow arsenal ready to throw at each other. The only focus on this was to not hit their allies. And some of the Pokémon hadn't thought twice to use their personal abilities to get an upper hand at some moments, like Dark with his Illusion or Radius with Run away to dodge some snowballs directed at him.

What followed the offense was a long and exhausting battle that involved many alliances and betrayals all throught, all of the pokémon in the household throwing snowballs at eachother, having a good time, even though some took the whole event more seriously like others, like Jake, who allied himself with Eric, Elly and Serge, or Emily and Hadrim, who later teamed up with Luca and Luna… The whole thing was a mess, and was filled with some awkward moments and some epic moments, like when Elly got on top of Serge's back and flew around the backyard whilst raining icy hell from above. They were eventually taken out as Eric and Jake were buried underneath snow, everyone getting tired of the whole event, with Serge and Elly crashing into the snow, Elly finding her in a rather awkward position.

Eric started moving to liberate himself of that snow prison, and managed to make the whole wall crumble down. He grabbed snow from the ground, quickly making a ball and turning around to face a surprised Espeon. He threw the ball at point blank range, barely leaving his paw, hitting the Espeon square in the face, then began running away, coming out to the middle of the battlefield, searching for his companions. Jake wasn't even fighting at that point, and was instead making snow figures that didn't last for too long, Elly was buried upside down and Serge seemed to be lying on the ground doing absolutely nothing. The Riolu decided to help Elly first, but Dark and Natalie were fighting in his way, so he tried to avoid being seen by either of them, then dashed to where his mate was, grabbed her legs and pulled. The Eevee screamed in slight pain and insulted whoever was pulling from her legs, without knowing who it was, but the Riolu eventually noticed that he wasn't going to do much like that, and in the end opted for digging her out.

Once she was able to, Elly popped her head out of the snow and looked at him. "About time! I was about to freeze down there." The Eevee said, creating a transparent barrier in case any snowballs flew their way.

"Well, I was also neck deep in snow, so I couldn't do much." He answered, turning to face the extremely noise siblings fighting right besides them. "Hey, weren't you two on the same team a few seconds ago?" Eric asked.

"It's a game, Eric. Teams are constantly changing." Dark said throwing his last snowball.

"Or the teams disappear altogether." Natalie added, managing to dodge her brother's snowball and throwing at him her own last ball. Dark, his attention focused on the pair under their barrier, got hit dead on. The Zoroark let himself fall down and let out a huge sigh.

"Man! I'm beat!" He let out, along with all the air in his lungs while trying to recover his breath. The game had warmed them up, making it easier to endure the cold of the snow. natalie on her side simply laid down, panting with her tongue out of her mouth. Both siblings had a huge smile on their faces. The kind of smile that gave away that they had had a great time! And also the kind of smile that only games had been able to bring to their faces for a long time.

"You look like you're exhausted." Elly pointed out, letting her barrier go away. Elly looked at the pokémon that were all over the courtyard, and noticed that some had decided to stop fighting, and were doing other things.

Everyone was doing their things after such a snow battle. Shade prepared a snowball with her paws and started to roll it around, making it bigger and bigger. Radius joined her not long after and Luna did the same. emily seeing this got curious and started to help as well. the four of them rolled the ball until it was big enough and then rolled it over to where Eric and elly where tanding. Radius immediately started pulling snow around the base of the ball to make a base that held the big snowball from moin from its place. Shade on her side started scratching the upper part of the snowball so it had a more or less flat surface where to place another ball over it. Seeing the Riolu and the Eevee with the sky blue eyes, the younger 'vee with the bow of the same colour smiled at them and started getting another snowball ready, task to which Radius joined quickly. Meanwhile, Luna asked Emily to help her with a third snowball.

"What are you doing?" Elly asked, a little confused.

"A snowman." Radius answered, stopping for a moment to face them. Shade waiting patiently for him.

"Wanna help?" The shiny Eevee added after a bit, wanting more of them all to participate with that little project. "We are going to need a paw." She added, giggling a bit.

Eric and Elly looked at eachother, and the Riolu shrugged. "Sure. I want to do something that doesn't involve fighting and throwing balls. After all, that's what we do for a living." The jackal said, smiling. Elly sighed and bumped against him, making it so he moved towards the spheres. The Riolu shot her a look, but decided to drop it, thinking she was just teasing him, and decided to start pushing the biggest one.

"No, wait." Shade said seeing him doing this when she and Radius turned around to start making the smaller ball approach the biggest. The which the Eevee with the striped kerchief had already secured with snow all around its base. "This is already placed, we are forming the other balls." She said to him. "But… there is plenty of space for other snowmen." She added, lowering her ears a bit offering an uncomfortable smile after asking him for help and now telling him to do one himself.

Eric looked at the smaller Eevee. "Oh, ok… Then I guess I'll start making another." He said, grabbing snow from the ground and forming it into a small ball. He had to crouch down in a weird way to push it, but little by little it got bigger and bigger until he didn't have any trouble pushing it.

Meanwhile, Ichiro was looking at them all from above, enjoying just seeing the Pokémon's playing around. It was then he heard steps by his door and he turned, seeing nox there. "Hey, Nox." The boy greeted him with a bit of happiness. "Won't you go out and play with the others? Even Luna is having a great time." The boy said. It was weird to see the Houndour not enjoying the day with the others.

The Houndour lifted his gaze from the floor, giving him a weirded out look. "Oh… Hey, I thought you were outside… Well, either way, I don't like the cold or snow, it makes me feel weak, and I am not fond of snow to begin with." Nox said, looking down the hallway and out the frost covered window.

"I see…" Ichiro said. He caught the majority of what the Houndour had said about that he didn't like the cold at all, but he didn't caught the first part of what he said. "At least you can go out if you want. I must stay inside because of what happened yesterday." The human said with a heavy sigh. "But it's of no use to get upset about it. There are a lot more winters to come after all." The boy said, more to himself than for the Fire and Dark type with him.

Meanwhile, back at the backyard, Hadrim, after recovering from the snow battle, had dedicated himself to repair his snow fort, but he didn't do it to keep fighting. He was putting a lot of care into it. He had an idea very well visualized in his head and using his paws to give form to the bigger parts of what he was working on. Once the snow fort was repaired, the Espeon rose an hexagonal protection around a space that was completely empty for now. Once finished he dug a hole in one of the walls of the protection to make an entrance. Then he dug what seemed to be a moat around the fort, finishing this by laying a few branches over it to act as a bridge. Once done with that, the Espeon jumped inside the protection and started to work, using his psychic abilities to build up the smaller buildings and other little details while with his own paws, he started to build the central piece of the sculpture. He built a castle with towers that rose over the height of the walls surrounding the sculpture, but he had to stop mid way since he reached a point where he couldn't reach higher to finish them so he let it aside for the moment and started finishing the lower parts of the castle. Once done with that area he could reach for himself, the Espeon closed his eyes and concentrated. His jewel started glowing a bit more intensely, giving away a more intense use of his powers. The same glowing covered his eyes under the eyelids while he kept concentrated, now in both the construction and himself. Slowly, he lifted himself off the ground and approached the unfinished part of the castle. The same glow from his eyes and jewel surrounded his body, but not to the point of blinding. Because of how concentrated he was, his movements were a lot slower, but just as firm as before.

Hadrim lifter some more snow and placed it on one of the unfinished towers, using his paws to mold it he built the rest of the tower, making sure it was nice and even, and took special care with the details like the windows. After this he went with the roof of the tower. It had a conic shape and with a tiled texture. To finish it, he rose a mast a bit and then molded one last thing on top of it. This last detail was an emblem representing a Sun like a circle with some spikes coming out of it and surrounded by a ring in vertical position. After this, he did the same with the other tower, this one having an emblem representing a crescent moon, also surrounded by a vertical ring, from the which the spikes came out.

The Espeon finished after some minutes, taking himself out of the walls of his sculpture before letting himself fall on his own butt, gasping slightly for the effort he had endured, now freed from his concentrated state. Aside from those two towers, he had built three more, slightly smaller towers, with their own emblems and details. One had the symbol of thunder on the roof's mast, the tower itself was covered in what seemed to be like pieces of earth clinging to the walls. Other tower had the emblem of a full moon, and the edification was covered in veins and vegetation, even a tree grew from the upper part of the tower. And a third tower, it had an emblem representing a sphere with a inner spiral, and the tower itself had what seemed to be a water canal flowing down around the tower as if following the stairway, from the upper part down to the base and ending at the entrance of the castle.

All over the walls of the snow city there were other emblems, repeating on various places. One of them was the psychic emblem, representing by an open eye, but at the same time, this emblem was surrounded by the symbol of a flame. The other emblem was the aura symbol, represented by a sphere with an inner spiral, this one being represented inside another that was a snow flake. This two emblems where on each tower of the castle's entrance. They had a meaning for the Espeon and everyone that was close to the family. However, Hadrim hadn't stopped there. Where would most likely be the castle's gardens, Hadrim had placed two more emblems using the flowers to draw them. One was a full Moon represented inside of a thunder and the other was the drawing of a book with a six pointed star placed over the cover.

After making sure everything was how he had envisioned, Hadrim smiled and nodded to himself. He backed away a bit to see that all the towers were visible from where he was. Even needing to stand over the walls of the fort to see it, he also made sure that the emblems in the gardens were clear and could be distinguished.

Jake walked up to Hadrim's fort, his eyes opened wide as plates. "Arceus… It's amazing." He congratulated the psychic type, looking at each and every single one of the details that he could see in the structure and the shapes. "I envy your species and abilities. You have psychic powers with the which you can craft works of art like these… Whilst us, frustrated artists, like my humble self, are limited to elaborate our works with our mere physical tools, hindered by our bodies…" Jake looked at his own hands in annoyance. They were useful, that he could never deny, but they fell short when compared to psychic powers such as Hadrim's or Elly's.

"Oh well… first of it's not that much." Had said, not being used that his sculptures get such prises. The Espeon even did some circles in the snow with one of his front paws. " Second: never feel envious of another artist's capabilities. There are always some perks that you have yourself and others don't. For example, this requires a lot of concentration to be done with psychic abilities and that can lead to mental overexertion. Aside from that, you might take more time work by using tools, but that only implies that you have dedicated more time to your work than any psychic would. Even being well done, with the details, we tend to speed up the process by using our abilities to make them, this causes them to be not as good as the rest due to the lack of caring and attention that the piece needs." He said to the Dark and Ice type, not wanting his artistic side to die down just because of not being able to get what he considers to be a good quality in the details. "I'll tell you something. The more time you put onto one of your creations, the more special it is." The Espeon ended with a smile.

"Well clearly, a sculpture like the one you have just created with your psychic powers may not have the same merit that one created by a pokémon without any powers… but that does not make the work any less impressive, neither does it make it any less beautiful. I, on the other hand, use only my claws, although one of my favourite past times is using my claws to create sculptures out of blocks of ice… And even though snow isn't the same, I still believe my work is acceptable." Jake said, pointing at the snow sculpture behind him.

The sculpture showcased a Dusknoir, with all of it's details and with the same size as the real thing, looking at the sky, one of his fists risen above his head. To his left was a small Sneasel with sharp and intelligent eyes, his eyes crossed in front of him, watching the Dusknoir's back, and finally at their feet were small shapes that were similar to Sableye, all of them with different faces and gestures, none of them like the other. Finally, at the foot of the sculpture one could see words, written with a very stylized and beautiful handwriting, which read: " _The Executioner and his Subjects"_. Hadrim stood looking at the sculpture. It was nicely detailed and it was original size, which was a plus on itself.

The Espeon approached the Sneasel's work and observed it closely, admiring each detail, even all the different faces of the little snow sableye. He ended looking at the pedestal and then backed away to see it all. It was a great work. "I don't get the title, but I'd say you did a splendid job with this." Hadrim said, smiling again at the Sneasel. Jake, however, wasn't really happy.

"There are many characters and details missing in this image. The material was unstable and I couldn't carry out what I originally envisioned, and the title was something I decided on as I realized that this work would not go any further, so one could say is temporary. If the material I had used was ice, I would've been able to clarify the Dusknoir's lower body, add more detail to the facial features… but since it has been made in under an hour, it is, as I said, acceptable. That Dusknoir is my master and tutor, a great pokémon, but one who fought for the wrong side during most of his life, although at the end of it all he realized the error of his ways and fought for the freedom of our world. The Sneasel… I fear there is no need to introduce him, and the Sableye are his subjects or lacked, one may call them whichever way they prefer. He may have been a hero in the end… but before that, he was once a villain, and he firmly believed he would never be forgiven for his mistakes… so be it then, for I have crafted this piece in a way he would most likely have enjoyed." Jake explained.

"Allow me to give you some advice." Said the Espeon after hearing his explanation. "Don't sculpt what you don't want to. Create what comes from you. Let inspiration guide your claws. The works are usually more expressive if you, in this case, sculpt what… you… want…" Hadrim started to talk but the Espeon slowly trailed off until he fell silent and his ears perked up, as well as he raised his head.

He was not the only one, though. Luca, Shade and Radius had also stopped what they were doing and had a similar reaction than the Espeon. It was as if them all had felt something at the same time since the four of them spaced out that way. Furthermore, the Espeon's eyes were lost forwards.

Jake looked at the Espeon, curious, remaining silent for a couple seconds out of respect, but once he noticed the psychic type wasn't paying attention to him, the Sneasel cleared his throat. "You were saying Hadrim?" He inquired, trying to sound as polite as he could.

"Eh?" The Espeon snapped out of his dozing state. "Oh! I'm really sorry. I… don't know why I just spaced out there." He apologized with the Ice type, who merely shook his head in signal that there was no need to apologize.

"What was I saying?" Had stopped to think for a moment. "Oh, yeah! If you let your art flow through you, the work will be much more expressive rather than if you craft what others want to see." He finally ended. "On other side, some sculptures are a mix of various." He let slide while eyeing the Sneasel, wondering if he had caught what he meant.

"That is most certain… but in this occasion I preferred to create a sculpture such as this. Furthermore, it is a work which represents someone of which I have a deep admiration, and we both see eye to eye when it comes to works of art. I like this work, not because he would have liked it, but because I consider it a homage to a dark age, filled with pain and hatred, but that should never be forgotten, for from this age came not only the greatest of dangers, but also the most courageous of heroes, between the which my humble self is included. I crafted this piece following no more desires than those of my icy heart." Jake explain in a poetic mannerism.

Meanwhile, whilst Hadrim and Jake discussed the finer points of artistic expression, Eric stopped rolling his ball and looked at it. It was bigger than him, so he decided to leave it like it was and started rolling another one to make the head, since Elly was working on the snowman's torso… but when he turned around to look at her and saw she was using her powers to organize her own snowman with balls she had already made with her powers.

"Hey Elly… you're using your powers a lot lately, aren't you?" He asked, his mate turning to face him.

"I was getting sick of not being able to use them. Imagine if you couldn't use your paws for two days straight, as if you didn't have them. It's really annoying, and it gets on your nerves. But… now I can do whatever the hell I want!" Elly expressed her happiness and looked at her mate, who was glaring at her. "What?" She asked.

"You didn't have to use your powers for this, Elly. You only had to make a ball and push it with your muzzle until it was big enough to finish this snowman. What do you think?" He asked, the Eevee groaning and leaving the balls where they were.

"Alright… I'll help you build a snowman, Eric." She said, crouching down and making a small snowball, which she began rolling around, whilst Eric finished his own.

Meanwhile, the others kept building snowman after snowman. Luca helped to place the heads to those that couldn't reach that up, while others brought pebbles and twigs to put on them. The pebbles being the mouth, eyes, nose and buttons of the imaginary shirt the snowman had on, while the twigs where the arms and hands. After a few moments and when all the snowmen were ready and built, a snowball sailed the air just to hit Luna on the head. The Vulpix let out a little surprised squeak and face plant herself on the snow at her paws. When she rose her head back up she had a mouthful of snow and she spat it out, having to paw out some of the snow. "Ok, Who did it?" She asked facing in the general direction the ball had came from. Behind her were the two 'Vee siblings, Eric, Elly, Dark and Emily. "If you don't tell me I'll start throwing snow at everyone." She said getting ready some snowballs and putting them on her tails and getting ready to launch them.

Dark immediately gave a step back, shaking his arms from side to side. "It wasn't me! Promise!" The Zoroak said, Shade and Radius saying the same but with less words. The only ones left to answer were Emily and the couple. If everyone said that they didn't do it, the snow would rain again.

"Don't even look at us. It wasn't either of us." Elly said whilst she and Eric finished their snowmen, one next to the other. Elly looked at her mate and a devilish smile flashed across her face, whilst she used her powers to undo the tie around Eric's scarf and hung it around the Snowman's neck. The jackal looked at her whilst she did this, and couldn't help but smile, although he immediately felt the change of temperature around his neck.

"We didn't do anything either." Zed said, who was rolling around the snow with Lucy, playing around. Serge was still lying on the snow, doing nothing, and Jake was still talking to Hadrim about art.

"Oh, come on! It had to be someone!" Luna said to everyone and gave them another chance at facing her. Upon seeing that nobody was saying anything… "Ok! You got this on yourselves!" She barked and threw the balls using her tails as catapults.

Dark jumped to a side in an attempt to dodge them, getting hit in one leg. Radius and Shade tried to hide under the snow but each of them got a snow on their rears. The last balls going towards Elly and Eric, who had some cover, but Luna was already preparing more snowballs.

Elly grabbed them as they flew towards them, her eyes glowing as that aura surrounded the snowballs. "Hey, we already told you it wasn't us! Why are you attacking us? Do you want to fight, sister?" Elly mocked the Vulpix's decision to attack everyone.

"It depends if you throw me back the balls." The Vulpix said with a look of determination towards the older Eevee. "And I threw them at everyone since no one is revealing themselves." She answered.

"Oh come on, we all told we didn't do anything, and you go and throw things at us. And no, I'm not gonna give them back to you, because if I do we're gonna start fighting and we won't ever stop." Elly said, smashing the balls against the ground. She rose her look and swept the area with her eyes. "Well let's see… Who threw that snowball?" The Eevee asked.

Everyone looked at each other but anyone said absolutely nothing. Hadrim on his part decided to take precautions against… artistic accidents. He surrounded both snow sculptures with a protective barrier that would avoid any possible damage to be caused to them.

"I can say I say the snowball hitting Luna, but I don't know who threw it." Said Dark.

At that moment, Natalie could swear she heard something. Her ears perked up and faced in the general direction of Eric and Elly. She looked at them and past them but nothing happened so she thought that she must had imagined the noise for sure. She then looked at the others, waiting to see if someone stepped forwards. Radius and Shade poked their heads out of their holes in the snow like little moles ready to get back to the safety of the underground. At that precise moment, another snow ball sailed the air towards the apparently distracted sky blue eyed Eevee. This was followed by someone running around the backyard.

Elly shouted as the snowball hit her, Eric and her stood still, looking at the trees, a little surprised. Eric was the first one to stand up and looked at the vegetation "Who's there?! Show yourself!" The Riolu ordered the pokémon that was hiding between the trees.

He got no answer… or at least not a verbal answer, since they all could hear someone chuckling soundly and running around. Dark looked at the trees surrounding the backyard and sniffed the air. Catching a somewhat familiar scent but it had so many differences that said familiarity was very hard to recognize. The zoroark closed his eyes and concentrated. He lasted a bit in starting to feel his surroundings, still blind to the energy but he was able to feel something. He couldn't describe the feeling but it was like when the fur stands on end, only that this time it did so in one direction and the feeling was moving all the time. It would be massively obvious to say that he could feel something or someone nearby moving, so he decided to try and tell something of more utility. Where it was would be a good thing but it never stopped moving around!

Eric closed his eyes and followed exactly what Dark was doing. They both looked from the attacker from the shadows, who was moving extremely quickly around them, jumping and swinging between the tree branches and bushes, crouching down to pick up snow and make a ball that it then threw at the bipedal fox, nailing him right on the face.

"Why you little!" The Zoroark let out in a growl, taking the snow out of his face, yet, upon losing the concentration he had lost the track of the little prankster.

Eric kept his concentration and grabbed snow, making a ball and waited for the moment for the pokémon stood still to throw a ball at it. However, it didn't look like it was about to happen anytime soon... and so Eric decided to end that little game. He dropped the snowball, sighing, whilst he grabbed a different sphere altogether. An aura sphere appeared in his paw, raised it over his head and released it. The energy projectile flew over their heads and up towards the sky, where once after enough time went by, it exploded violently as it became unstable. The sound surprised everyone in the courtyard that had not seen the Riolu preparing it, jumping up and looking at the jackal, who was standing in the middle.

"That was just a warning shot! I don't want to play these little games anymore, so show your face already. I think you should apologize to someone." Eric advised the new pokémon whilst trying to ignore the looks that his companions were shooting him. The Riolu returned the looks, looking at his mate last. "What? I'm serious, I'm really not in the mood for this right now. And I'm not going to stand with my arms crossed whilst some smartass throws snowballs at my friends…" The fighting type tried to defend his actions, and even though his intentions were good and comprehensible, his actions were a little strange.

"Don't you think you've overreacted a bit?" Said a voice that came from one of the trees nearest to the backyard, the speaker finally being seen. It was the voice of a male golden furred Riolu with greyish coloured eyes, just like Shade, and he was sitting on the branch. "I get I didn't come out when I was told to, but I don't see need to get so aggressive over it when I was just throwing snowballs at you lot." He commented, shrugging and rising his paws a bit.

"Well, if I'm honest if you go around introducing yourself like that, I don't know what type of reactions you're expecting… also, who are you?" Elly asked the new Riolu, since Eric was standing still, flabbergasted, just like Zed. A golden Riolu… it reminded them of Virkov

* * *

The creature strolled at a steady pace through the forest, not a soul standing in it's way. Silence hanged in the air, only disturbed by the crackling of the leaves underneath its feet, leaving marks in the ever so small patches of snow that remained. Far in the distance he could hear strange loud sounds and shouting from strange voices. It stood still and looked forward, the sun setting over in the distance, marking the silhouettes of tall buildings with many floors, screens blasting with my music and advertisements, cars running up and down the streets, At the time it did not know, but what lay in front was a real human town, to the which lead the trail he was following.

"The rats… they are holed up in there… in the fortress… it shall be easy." The creature reassured itself.

"Oh really? How do you plan on getting in there exactly?" Another voice asked, annoying the creature, who remained still.

"My… Our abilities will allow us to infiltrate their defenses with ease. Once inside, if we stumble across opposition… it shall be your job to dispose of them." The creature responded with a monotone voice.

The other voice laughed. "Finally! You know, you left me hanging in that bar back then… It's much more fun when you hear them crying and screaming in pain… but you? Just two swipes and they're done for. Really? You're blander than I expected." It responded, which annoyed the creature further.

"Silence, you useless psychopath. Your bloodlust would've only made things more difficult with "him". Our objective was to convince him, not bludgeon every pokémon there." The creature responded, keeping it's calm, although his tone had now shifted from monotone to slightly irritated.

"What did I say? Bland." The voice finished. "That being said… I want to test them first. If we find them, I want to be their rival and bathe in their blood. Who do you want me to kill first: The Eevee or the Riolu?" The voice asked, but the creature simply ignored it, and the voice finally fell silent.

The creature resumed its voyage. " _Why… why am I forced to stand such an irrational and ruinous being?"_ The creature thought whilst it approach the city. Meanwhile, it remembered it's first encounter with him. In that filthy bar, far away from the grasp of any god, there he was found, surrounded by the most miserable bunch of grimy and disgusting creatures that considered themselves "outlaws". Criminals without resources, ruined, and even disgusted at their own selves, drowning their woes in bottle after bottle of beer, tainted by that Muk's fluids, who acted as the owner of that "bar", even though he himself was just more scum, a murderer that had killed the original owner and had kept the property for himself.

He also remembered the event to the which his blood thirsty colleague referred to. Whilst talking with him, two pokémon, a Machamp and a Lopunny were mid-coitus behind it, and "he" could see them in full sight. The look of disgust and hatred in his eyes had been enough for it to take measure, finding his mind reading abilities unnecessary to guess what fate he hoped awaited for them. As such, it decided to give him a small "showcase" of it's own talents. It simply took two swift cuts, and their bodies fell to the floor, stone cold and rigid, the movement so quick and precise that nobody noticed the assassination until a few seconds transcurred. He got up from his spot, but even with that he wasn't satisfied, so he ordered it to do something. A mission, one could say. If it succeeded, then he would listen to it's words, but if it didn't… then it's life would be in vain. There was much more on the line than it seemed at first glance. However, it was already going to carry out this assignment whether or not he asked it to do it. In fact, the words he said at that time brought him some personal satisfaction.

" _Kill the entirety of Team Star, and bring me Eric and Elly's severed and bloody heads."_

 **(WARNING, REALLY LONG AND BORING EXPLANATION AS TO WHY I HAVEN'T UPLOADED OR SAID ANYTHING IN THE PAST TWO MONTHS)**

 **So last time when I was here I said that I was having quite a rough ride with exams and stuff... well that turned up really well, because I managed to pass all of my exams and also passed the college entrance exams with flying colors, which means... I'm going to college! Yaaaay... That means that when next year comes around... I dunno, probably will be the exact same that it's been up to this point.**

 **So yeah, my excuse was that life just got in the middle during two months straight, with exams and then my english courses, everything just piled together and I didn't have time to breathe. But now that the whole unpleasentness is over, I believe from this point forward it's just going to be writing until the end of the summer, because I don't have anything to do. That being said, this is a story where two separate writers have to decide together on what's going to happen, we both have different ideas, vissions and writing styles (something that you might have figured out just by reading these last three chapters), so it takes a little bit longer than when it's an individual writing.**

 **So, tldr; I'm sorry, life got in the way for two whole months, we're going to try to write more for the rest of the summer.**

 **Thank you all for waiting this long, once again, I'm sorry for taking so long, and I'll see you all in the next chapter. Take care!**

 **PS: Don't go around with Pokémon GO and get hurt or worse!**


	5. Chapter 4 - Warming Up

**Chapter 4**

 **Warming Up**

The golden Riolu jumped down from the branch he was on after Elly asked him who he was. "Well ain't I lucky? It is not everyday that such a beauty asks my name." He says to the sky blue eyed Eevee. However, before he could even start to answer her, two other Eevee, one with brown fur a kerchief around his neck and the other with silvery fur and a bow on her ear, tackled him down to the floor.

"Dust!" Both 'Vee Kaiser siblings screamed his name while hugging and nuzzling him like crazy, their tails wagging the same way.

"Well, well. Isn't it the young Water Warrior?" Luca asked putting her paws in a jar like position with a beaming smile and a gleaming in her eyes that gave away a sheer happiness while she approached the hugging trio.

"Ehehehe… Hey! Shade, Radi, mom. Missed you a lot. How much has it been? … around six months?" He asks them standing up to jump at the Lucario letting her pick him up and sit him on her arm.

"Six and a half, to be exact." Hadrim lets himself be known, making the grey eyed Riolu look at him.

"Dad!" The jackal squealed jumping from his mother's arm to his father's back a few meters away and hugging the Espeon tightly. The psychic type just smiled and as he could he made the Riolu, Dust, get off of him to then hug him. Emily let out a "D'aaawww!" as she saw this, whilst this affectionate move snaps both Eric and Zed of their thoughts, remembering that the pokémon that was once their master was long gone.

"I'm glad to see you have come back, Dust, but I think you have a question to answer." Hadrim reminds him, the golden Riolu turning to look back at Elly.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." He apologized chuckling sheepishly to then stand politely and, putting his left paw over his chest, he bowed slightly at them all. "My name is Dust S. Riolu Kaiser. The S stands for Shiny, but that is clear I think… erm." At that moment, he looked at the other Riolu there. "Is he okay?" He asked Elly pointing with a paw towards Eric.

Before she could answer however, he was already speaking to the golden furred pokémon. "Yeah… I'm fine. Sorry you uh… Reminded me of someone I knew a long time ago…" Eric shakes his head of those thoughts. "Anyways, so you're another member of the Kaiser family? In that case, then we should properly introduce ourselves…" One by one, all the members of Team Star introduced themselves, starting with Eric himself, and finishing with Elly. "We're an exploration and rescue team known as Team Star, and we're staying at this house for the time being, since we don't have anywhere to go at the time." Eric explained their current situation, intentionally avoiding the reason why they hadn't quite left the household yet.

"Sounds to me like you have lost your base AND your home to a hurricane or something of the like." Dust said biting his lower lip a bit, but then all the names clicked and he looked at the blue furred Riolu's paw and opened his mouth to talk. However…

"Dust, go in and take a bath. I'm going to start getting the food ready." Luca said to her cub, who looked at her and nodded to then go to the tree where he was sitting earlier and picked up his bag to then go inside. "And the rest of you should also take a bath, this game was a good exercise in my opinion." She added to the rest of the pokémon there. Dust stopped in front of Dark and Natalie when they approached him and introduced themselves as well. Luna did the same after them… and bite down on the Riolu's tail for him doing a mention of her "nice and plump rear end" in general.

"Wellp… Home sweet home." He said smiling warmly once he went in after that little moment with the Vulpix. But, when he did, he bumped the door frame with the bracelet on the which he had mounted the everstone, this falling off and rolling away into the kitchen. "No! No! No! Nononononononono! Come back here!" The Riolu said as he chased the stone. A burst of aura came from him as the energy started to cover his body and even with his low level of aura feelings, Dark was able to feel it and looked towards the kitchen in time to see a dim light. The Riolu jumped and caught the stone just in time and put it back in place. The item doing what it was supposed to do and started glowing. Sparks jumped around his body and the energy faded off of him, letting the Riolu panting slightly. ' _Shit! That was close. Not the moment yet._ ' He thought. After a few seconds of recovering, Dust looked around, hoping no one had seen that and sighed, picking up his backpack and disappearing through the living room's door.

Eric sighed and looked at Elly, who just returned the look. There was nothing to be said really, but she could see how uncomfortable the Riolu was. "Come on… let's head inside, everyone, I think we've had more than enough snow for today." He said, heading towards the house, Elly right behind him, trying to decide whether or not she should try to say something to cheer him up or if it would do more harm than good. Lucy was feeling the same about Zed, but she was also annoyed that they were heading back into the house and leaving the snow for the time being. Jake either didn't care or didn't show his concern, but either way he walked back to the house, Serge being the last one since he took his sweet time to get up from the snow and pay attention to the world around him again.

"This sucks… no more snow for today." The Shinx pouted

"And, sadly, seems like it for the rest of the year." Luna whined a bit for that, yet she went inside with a slight trot, feeling hungry.

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked, evaluating the Vulpix's words… then she remembered what the date was. "Oh man! This blows so much! Worst part is we never get to see the snow back home because we live in the coast… Arceus damn it, this sucks so much!" The Shinx was now angry, considering how much fun she had that morning, and the fact that it barely snowed back in Treasure Town, resulted in her realizing this would be the last time she would see snow, at least for a long while.

At that moment, someone's stomach made the hunger known to them all and they went inside. With the hype for playing on the snow, none have had much for breakfast. Whilst everyone tried to decide on who would take a bath first, Jake walked into the living room, jumped up and sat down on the huge couch. "I shall take a bath last if wish so…" He told the rest as he started looking around the room, bored out of his mind. It never really happened to him that there wasn't anything for him to do… but at the time he was out of ideas, and he considered it a waste of time to go get a book, specially without Hadrim's permission.

Speaking of the Espeon, the psychic type entered the living room and sat on one of the armchairs after grabbing the TV remote with his tail to then left it in front of him once he laid down on the comfortable sitting place to then turn on the TV. Turned out that there was a film at the moment. Hard for the Espeon to recognize at the moment since the scene he caught it was one where a trainer and his Poplio were screaming their lungs out while another pokémon, a big Rhydon, looked at them with a psychotic expression on its face, the drill on top of its nose revving up with its characteristic noise and the big Pokémon dug forwards to do what has to be done. It was then when Hadrim simply switched channels with a plainly bored expression on his face.

Meanwhile however, every single one of Team Star's members were shocked, surprised and flabbergasted. "WHAT THE HELL?! Someone's in danger!" Eric screamed at the top of his lungs, everyone in the team getting ready to run towards the source of the noise, and even though they were gone, the whole team looked at the TV, then at Hadrim. "What are you doing?! Those two needed help! How can you ignore their cry for help like that?!" The Riolu accused the Espeon, criticizing his rather cold response to someone's desperate call for aid.

Hadrim looked at them and gave them a funny look. "Erm… It was just a movie. It wasn't real." He said to them with a nervous tone and waited for their reaction before trying to explain how movies work. He also switched back to the movie, where a Gardevoir was now reading some papers while humans were talking about some murdering the night prior where a boy and his Poplio were killed.

"It sounded pretty real to us!" Elly exclaimed, looking at the TV again. This time however, she stared at the television for a few moments, and noticed some odd things… like how the view was changing constantly, as if they were teleporting around the room. "Wait… what's going on? What's that… thing?" Elly asked.

"It is what they call a Television, or "TV" for short, Elly. It is one of this world's many entertainment devices, capable of broadcasting various scenes or moments through something called "channels". These scenes are staged in locations far away from our current location and are transmitted here through invisible waves called…" Jake just went on and on about how televisions worked.

"I don't think that so much information all of a sudden is easy to digest, Jake. Just know that this is a movie and what is happening is not real." Hadrim said, trying his best to be polite when the Sneasel almost gave even him a headache with the info.

All of Jake's companions looked at the duo, extremely confused. "Mo… movie?" Zed asked, trying to wrap his head around something like that.

"Not real? But, I thought that before they were showing the real news? I thought this thing worked as some sort of newspaper that gave you information for free and in a visual format?" Elly asked, saying some pretty confusing words for some of her companions, everyone shooting odd looks at her. "What? Me and Jake pay attention, unlike any of you apparently." She criticized her companions, getting a mixture of reactions, ranging from annoyance to being ashamed for being so oblivious.

"Well… the news are real things… most of the times…" Hadrim nodded to her. "But movies are a way of entertainment. Think of it as a drawing book with lots of images that have slight changes. If you flip the pages really fast you see it as if it was moving like a living being. In this case..." He pointed at the investigation movie. "They use devices, the cameras, to… catch the moments with real people and pokémon pretending that what's happening is real. They catch the moments, or scenes, from various points of views. That's why there are a lot of changes in what you can see there. If you have paid attention, in a few seconds the time there has changed from nighttime to early morning the next day." He said to them, hoping that he said it easy enough for them all to get the general idea of it.

Everyone but Jake analyzed the scenes being displayed on television, and they slowly realized what the Espeon meant. The interactions between the characters felt rigid and fake almost, everything was conveniently timed, and the many quick changes between the scenes made them all realize that what they were seeing was probably fake. "Well… sorry for freaking out like that then, we're just not really used to be standing around doing nothing for so long." Eric apologized in the name of all his companions, whilst everyone just went their separate ways, Elly remaining by her mate's side. Hadrim just smiled at him and told him not to worry about it, even sharing a little story of his, regarding the first time he ever saw a TV.

The rest of the morning consisted of the whole household taking turns to bathe, with Eric and Elly being the last ones. Once they were inside the bathtub, relaxing in the warm water, Elly took the chance to look at the Riolu in front of her, across the bathtub, trying to wash himself. "Eric… Can we speak for a second?" She asked him softly, trying to make it sound as if it was just a normal conversation.

The Riolu looked up at her whilst rubbing his sides. "Hmmm? Yeah, what is it Elly?" He inquired, but then noticed the worried look in her eyes and quickly predicted her question. "If you're going to ask me about the whole Dust thing… Don't worry, I'm fine. Just… a little shocked, is all." He responded to her unworded question, the Eevee a bit surprised that he had seen her coming. Then again, it was pretty obvious she was worried, and even though he had already answered her, she pressed onward.

"Well, it was that… but just in general really. You've been… really nervous and worried lately. I understand that we're in a completely new location, and that there could be someone hot on our trails… but I can't bare to see you like this all the time Eric. You barely even sleep, and when you do, you rest uneasy. I've woken up several times during the night the last few days because you were literally choking me in your arms, Eric." With each phrase, Eric's face turned from calm to guilty and sulky.

"Well… I'm just really worried. There's lots of things about this world that we don't know yet, we don't even know how we're going to get back, and honestly, that "thing" back then surprised me way too much, and I doubt it's going to let up that easily. I'll admit it though… maybe I've been too stressed out lately, and consequently I've stressed out the others. If that's the case I'm terribly sorry for it Elly, it wasn't my intention." Eric looked at the water, sitting down on the bathtub's floor, moving his paw around, making waves. "I just want to make sure that everyone's safe. If something happened to either you guys or the Kaiser I'd be unable to forgive myself." He said.

To this, to his honest surprise, Elly answered with a giggle. "I get it now… You think that the Kaiser can't take care of themselves, right?" She asked, the Riolu taking a few moments to respond with a nod. "Well… Honestly, they don't seem like the greatest of fighters, but they could definitely hold their own in a fight, they aren't completely inexperienced… they just aren't used to fighting. They showed this to us when they helped us with that toddler of a "trainer", remember?" Eric bit his lip as Elly reminded him of that incident, slowly realizing that maybe his fears had been unfounded. And yet…

"There's still a lot of things we have to worry about though. Sure, they know how to fight normal foes like those pokémon, but are they capable of dealing against something like that thing, who jumped on us when we least expected it and almost killed some of us. And not only that, but how are we going to get back home, and…" Elly trudged through the water and moved a paw to his muzzle, trying to shut him up.

"You're going to make my head burst if you keep going like that. Look, I understand your worries, but look at it this way: That thing felt so dangerous because it surprised us, but now we're ready. That initial surprise factor is gone, and we're now ready to fight him. Not only that, but even though they may not count for much, the Kaiser will help us with the battle if it does actually happen. And for the love of Arceus and all that is holy, Eric, STOP worrying about home. The guildmembers are there taking care of stuff back there, and you know they're more than capable of taking care of basically everything that may happen. Let me remind you of Lucy's literal words when she heard of this idea: Let's consider this some sort of… Vacation." She concluded.

They both stared at eachother silently, before Eric start chuckling and trying to laugh. Elly lifted her paw with a smile on her face and the Riolu started laughing out loud. "Oh man… I must've really angered you, haven't I?" He teased.

The Eevee rose an eyebrow, keeping the smile. "What gave it away?" She asked, amused.

Eric quickly reached out for her head and wrapped his paw around it, pulling her towards him, the Eevee tripping on the bathtub and sinking her head underwater for a few seconds, popping back out, her fur covering her entire face. "I noticed when you quoted Lucy of all pokémon. Now that's something I never thought I'd hear you say!" Eric explained the source of his amusement, and Elly couldn't help but smile as she realized what she had done, but also feel happy that she had managed to brighten up his mood somewhat.

Once he finished laughing, he rubbed her forehead gently. "Alright, I'll try to calm down and look at things from another perspective Elly. Also, I'll try to not choke you with my arms when we're sleeping." He promised her.

She smiled as he said this. "Yeah, that'd be nice… I'd like you to hug me like this." She said, both of them enjoying the relaxing warm bath together.

* * *

The Zoroark was laying down on his puk bed. However, he was restless for some reason. And for once it wasn't that he had not taken his pill. He just couldn't sleep at all. The Dark-type ended standing up and stretching. "Dark?" Natalie asked waking up feeling him moving so much. "What is it?" She asked sitting up but he made her lay down again gently.

"It's nothing, sis. I'm just gonna walk a bit." He answered her smiling and petting her until she fell asleep. It was a little thing she had gotten with being a Pokémon… of course, he had that too. After making her comfortable, the Dark-type stood and walked out of the room, closing the door gently once outside and he sighed. Heading to the stairway.

"Halt!" A voice exclaimed in the hallway. Out of the shadows, a huge figure stepped out and placed a wing in front of Dark. "If you wish to pass through here, you must answer these questions three!" Serge said, scaring the Zoroark out of his skin.

"Serge! What the hell!? It's late! The others are trying to sleep!" Dark said to the Pidgeot almost having to climb down from the ceiling for the jump the bird made him give.

"Hahaha, sorry man, I just had to quote that movie. Holy hell, I hadn't laughed that much in a while… You guys know how to have fun around here. And what were the odds that they played it today on TV too." He said, rubbing the back of his head with a huge smile. "Anyways, where are you going? It's pretty late." He said, repeating the exact same thing that Dark had told him just a few moments ago.

"Try not to get yourself in a war you might lose, Serge." Dark said after calming his breathing and his pounding heart. "Had it been Ichiro you'll have a fly to do." The Zoroark added. "As for where I'm going. I'm just gonna take a stroll around in the forest. I sometimes can't sleep, even with my meds." Explained the bipedal fox.

"Alright, but be careful out there, you might get jumped by something." He felt like he had to warn the Zoroark, but even then he let the dark type go wherever he pleased.

* * *

Dark wasn't the only one with sleeping problems, though. Shade was also awake and was sneaking out of Ichiro's room by the window and walking over the roof of the house to then jump towards a tree branch and she climbed down the trunk to the floor, and then started to walk through the forest. She giggled feeling the night breeze brushing her fur, as if it was the Night's welcome to her to this hours. It was a feeling she loved and the calm, the night sounds… She just couldn't describe how much she loved this time of each day… or night… Whatever. The shiny Eevee walked through the forest calmly, letting her paws wander around on their own. She walked carelessly around until she heard the river nearby, and started to walk towards it.

Once there she reached the river, she leant down and lapped up some water, the moon was high in the night sky and the Silver eyed Eevee laid down on her back to enjoy the view. One thing that soothed her was looking at the moon in whichever form it was during the night, it calmed her and helped her sleep after a good stroll. However, the sound of rustling leaves interrupted her relaxing moment and she quickly rolled over her belly and stood, looking the way the sound came, sniffing around trying to recognize any scent, hard to do with the strong scent of water on the area. as the sound got closer and closer, her fear got hold of her and she got a Shadow ball ready to launch, still she waited. A dim, purple light came from the bushes as well as a poorly formed Aura sphere came out of them, followed by the arm of certain Zoroark she had come to know. "Dark?" She asked, dispelling her move to look at him, who did the same. "Arceus. I thought you where some other from the area." She said to him.

"Do I smell that bad?" He joked and for that he got a rotten apple on the head from a nearby Noctowl that glared at him once it landed. "Ok. Sorry. No need to get like that." He said sheepishly to the avian that flew away after that and the Zoroark approached the river.

"Well, now you do stink a bit." Shade giggled for the situation. "But no, I could almost only smell water." She said trying to hold in her laughter while he got into the water.

"Har, har. Very funny." He said to her to then submerge himself and scrub his head to get rid of the decomposing fruit. From this, Shade just couldn't handle it any more and burst out laughing while he washed and kept even when the Zoroark came out of the water, all cleaned. He saw this and looked at her, slightly annoyed and got back into the water, using all his force to splash at her, making her yelp in surprise and sit up right. She wasn't wearing her ribbon so only her whole fur ended soaking wet from this attack, and it was his turn to laugh seeing all her fur weighted down over her.

 **(At this point search for: The Legend of the Dragoon: Shana's Theme Creti to compossers)**

"Oh! Why you little!" She barked at him and jumped into the water, starting a splashing war. Admittedly the water was cold since Winter had just finished and Spring was on its early days, but goofing around in the swallows of the river they were quick to warm up.

They stopped after a few minutes of this and got out of the water, both of them laying down on the dirt and looking up to the sky. He was admiring the stars while she was looking intently at the crescent Moon, both of them making sure to use whatever they had to hide certain areas.

"So fresh…" He said out of the blue after some minutes of silent staring. "I love the night. It's quiet everywhere and calm." He continued. "No noise to interrupt your thoughts. Just… the peace of a sleeping world." He ends.

"Yeah, I like that too." Shade said, her eyes still on the moon. **(Pause the music here)** She went to talk more but the sound of a twig snapping interrupted her. Dark and Shade immediately sat up and they both looked towards the source of the noise at the other side of the river. Dark's eyes went wide like plates when he saw the red eyes of that Lucario. The same that had fought him when he was still human.

"Hey! Over there!" The Lucario called, being a male. Both Shade and Dark looked around.

"Us?" The young Shiny asked.

"Yes. Have you seen a human around here? I've been months looking for a human that kitnapped a little Eevee kit. He was clearly lost so my guess is that he's still in this forest."

"I'm sorry but the only humans here is the Kaiser family, and they would never kitnap any pokémon." Shade said. Her tone had changed all of a sudden. She talked with a more harsher tone and straight to the point, this called Dark's attention since she normally was more of a cheery one.

"Watch your tone talking to an older pokémon, runt! Didn't your parents show you to respect your elders?" The Lucario snarled, scolding her.

"Well fresh news: you are not one of my elders and your incapacity to think that that Human was helping that Eevee makes you not worth my respect." She retorted.

"Shade!" Dark said, surprised by her words but the landing of the other Pokémon on their shore made him look back and stand.

"That voice! You? How-!?" The jackal started.

"None of your business!" Shade retorted.

"Shade! Stop!" Dark scolded her and she backed away a bit, looking away. However, before the Zoroark could even face again at the Lucario, he was hit by a bullet punch right on the gut that smashed the air out of him and made Dark bend forwards. He didn't even heard Shade calling his name in a scream.

"That's for the humiliation you caused me!" And then a strong kick to the face. "And that for whatever you did to that Eevee. If this is your punishment for your acts then I say you deserve it but that it is not enough!" The fighting type said, about to give another hit but the sound of wings flapping echoed between the trees, a shadow covered them all, and the next moment Serge swooped down and landed in between Dark, Shade and the attacking Lucario. The Jackal was surprised by the sudden arrival and backed away, this newcomer being much bigger than he expected.

"Serge? What are you doing here?" Shade asked upon recognizing the avian.

"What? Did you think I'd let you two outside without any kind of surveillance? I may be lazy, but I'm not a dumbass." He said, looking at them, then glared at the Lucario. "And you… what's your deal?" The bird asked the fighting type.

The Lucario backed away. "Wha… who the hell are you? Where did you come from?" He questioned, waiting for an immediate response.

"None of your beeswax buddy! The question is why are you attacking these two in the middle of their romantic date? You're killing the mood!"

"Wai-what!?" Shade squeaked hearing this, not believing her ears and looking at the Pidgeot with a shocked face. However, he ignored her and instead kept looking at the Lucario, waiting for a response.

"He kitnaped an Eevee kit when he was human! He deserves to be punished!" The Lucario barks. This made Shade snap out of her shock.

"He did not, you bastard!" She barks back at the bipedal jackal.

"Woah woah woah, back up a bit… when he was human?!" Serge stares at the Lucario, then at the Zoroark, then back at the fighting type, then burst out laughing. "Dude, you're nuttier than a fruitcake! This guy here's been a pokémon his whole life! You're delusional, that's what's going on here. Tell me, are you tripping?" He asked, laughing and making fun of the Lucario's ridiculous claims.

"Are you from another dimension or what!?" Lucario asked "Thought your parents would have taught you about Ninetales curses." He said. "It can turn a human into a pokémon." The aura pokémon told him.

Serge smirked. "Well, maybe they didn't tell me about THAT, but what they taught me is to identify scumbags like you. I'm not about to start believing a random Lucario's words against a friend of mine. This Zoroark knows only of five Eevee and none of them are being molested…" He snared at the Lucario. "So get your head out of the fucking gutter and leave before I make you." He didn't budge an inch, though the look on his eyes was more than threatening.

"Well I'm not hearing your friend denying it either." The Lucario snarled back, starting to get pissed at this nosy bird brain.

Serge rolled his eyes. "Okay, you're starting to get annoying… And besides, you fucking punched the lights out of him before he could say anything. You can't go around complaining about not getting answers to justify yourself when you shoot before you ask, you damn idiot." He insulted the fighting type.

"Enough! I'm sick of you! Now get out of my path!" The Lucario roared, getting ready to launch an Aura sphere at Serge. However, he didn't have time to even summon the sphere. The instant he rose his arm, a high pitched sound was heard for just a moment, and the next instant a cut appeared on the Lucario's right cheek, cutting from his muzzle to just below his ear. This stopped the jackal dead on. He was fast and he knew it but to be so fast that he missed it because of blinking… That was simply too much. "Damn nosy bird…" He muttered.

Serge pointed his wing at him, the tip gracing the Lucario's yugular. "Now… I'm going to repeat myself. You can either leave with that pretty scar on your cheek, which you can lie about and say you got in a pretty tough battle… or you can stay and nose around a little bit and I'll personally castrate you without anesthesia." A single drop of blood dripped from the tip of his wing, tinging the Lucario's throat a dark red under the dim light of the moon. "Deal?" He threatened.

The Lucario just growled and snarled. "Our paths will cross again." Were the last words of that Lucario before jumping back to the other side of the river and walking away.

"Huh… What a joke: Our paths will cross again. Can you be any cheesier than that?" The bird joked. He then turned to face the duo behind him. "You guys ok?"

"Serge… thank you." Shade said to the Pidgeot, more relaxed after the Lucario was gone. After those words, she heard a groan and looked at Dark, starting to come back to his senses. "Dark! You okay?" Shade asked him going to his side, seeing the Zoroark sitting up and rubbing his aching forehead.

"Yeah… just a bit… stunned." He said. "What just happened?" He asked.

Serge walked over to him. "You took a punch to the face. Honestly, I'm surprised he didn't straight up knock you out." He said.

"Natalie usually says my skull is as thick as the world's cortex." The Zoroark allows himself a little joke, chuckling even through the headache.

"Well, at least he didn't knock out your sense of humor. Anyways, glad to know that you're ok." He said, then looked at both Dark and Shade, a smile appearing on his face. "I'll take my leave. Three's a crowd." With that, the Pidgeot flapped his wings and flew up. "By the way, be more careful! Try to have your little date closer to home next time, will ya?" He recommended, then flew away.

"That was a bit random." She said referring to the… whole recent situation while watching the Pidgeot fly away.

"Date? The fuck?" Dark asked outloud himself to then shake his head after a moment. "Whatever. Wanna wander around a bit more?" He asked her.

"Sounds good to me, but I'd rather keep on this side of the river." Shade answered.

"Agreed." The Zoroark let out and the two of them started to walk around randomly once again.

 **(restart music at this point)**

Around an hour later, the two reached a clearing and decided to lay down and watch the sky again. Thanks to certain birdy the walk had been dead silent all the way. And even more for a few minutes while them both looked up, she at the moon, he at the stars. It was then that she found her voice.

"I love gazing at the moon." She said all of a sudden and he looked at the satellite without thinking. "The way it shines is just... Well, I find it relaxing. No matter what form the moon is in, full or claw like." She said and he listened.

"I see." He said. "I like gazing at the stars. Their flashes, some brighter, others being more dim lighted… It makes my mind wander. Thinking on… whatever comes to mind. I too feel relaxed looking at them. The lights that shine in the middle of the darkness. Is like… I don't know how to explain it."

"You find peace looking at them, right?" she asked, smiling and looking at him, making the Zoroark look back at her and he stood looking at her for a moment, to then smile back at her.

"More or less, yeah." He said calmly, going back to look up at the stars. And then he yawned deeply, starting to feel sleepy. She giggled at this.

"Wow. That's some peace." She teased him and he chuckled since she yawned just like him afterwards.

"Says the one that's yawning." he teases back and then he gets comfy, laying on his side and curling a bit. Shade approached him and he made her a bit of space by his side, not minding sharing body heat. The Shiny laid by his side and he tried to use his mane as a blanket for her but it wasn't very loose. The Zoroark in the end decided to grab the ball that held his mane and took it off. With his hair much more free he could cover both her and himself. She felt some warm come to her face feeling this but she said nothing except a little, shy thank you to him. They didn't last much more in falling both asleep.

 **(music ends here)**

* * *

"Aaaa- Aaaaaa- AAAACCCHOOOO!" The Riolu's sneeze rocked the house to it's core, deafening all of those around him and scaring those that weren't prepared for it. Right next to the Riolu, Jake was holding a wet rub, cooling it with his ice covered hand whilst on the other side an Eevee was trying to feed the Riolu a plain looking soup.

"C'mon Eric. Luca, Zed and I prepared this for you. It has everything you need to get through this cold as fast as you can." She said, lifting a spoonful of the soup. The soup had a really strong smell and taste because one of the ingredients were garlic heads, and the Riolu wasn't too keen on those. She tried to put the spoon near his muzzle, but he wouldn't open it. She looked at him, annoyed. "You know, for being a supposed hero of the world, you're being really childish right now, Eric!" She chastised him, but the Riolu wouldn't budge.

Jake put the rub on his forehead. "Eric, this soup contains various ingredients that are beneficial to your health, and are necessary for you to heal from this cold at a quicker rate than normal." He informed the Riolu, who looked at him.

"I don't care if it's Ambrosia, I still won't…" Even though his voice was raspy and tired, the Riolu opened his mouth for just a few seconds, but it was more than enough for the Eevee to push the spoon into his mouth and force him to drink the soup. He looked at her, his eyes wide open, and shook his head repeatedly, but Elly smiled and nodded repeatedly in response. Eventually, the Riolu gave in and drank the soup, crossing his arms. Elly pulled out the spoon and fed him more of the liquid, and she slowly managed to feed the reluctant fighting type. After he had finished the soup, Elly got up from the floor.

"Alright, now try to get some rest, and maybe tomorrow you'll feel better, ok?" She recommended her mate, who simply scoffed and closed his eyes, grumbling and complaining about how awful the soup tasted. Elly blew a kiss at him, then she and Jake left the room and closed it. Eric was resting in their room, so since he was sick the rest of their friends would have to sleep in other rooms of the house. As they walked away from the door, a familiar Lucario walked up to them.

"How is he doing?" Came Luca's voice from the stairway as she had come up to ask, but seeing them coming out she waited until the door was closed.

"He's doing well, I guess. He couldn't have been anymore displeased with the soup though, but don't hold it against him, he doesn't like garlic at all. That being said, I think he'll listen to me if I insist… Thanks for helping me with the soup by the way, I hope you were right with the ingredients." Elly thanked the Lucario for her advice, Jake merely standing by them in silence, since he didn't have anything to say.

The Lucario giggled. "No one in this household likes them, but aside of a tasty ingredient for some recipes, it is as good as chicken to treat a cold. Just chicken soup is tastier. Make sure to store the extra soup in the fridge so it doesn't get bad." She said to them. "Glad he is doing fine. What about you, have you already arranged where are you going to sleep?" She asked them. "I would offer you a room but… yeah we have no more spare." She added, her ears going down while she apologized. Elly laughed and talked with Luca about the room arrangements whilst Jake merely walked down the stairs, decided to read a book to kill time.

Outside of the house, Serge was lying on the grass and snoring away lazily. Since he had to stand guard the previous night, he wasn't in the mood to do anything at the moment, and they had all gotten a lucky break that day because Eric had caught a cold, because if he hadn't they would be doing an intense session of training at the moment. ' _Good thing Elly isn't as strict._ ' He muttered to himself, rolling on his back, crossing his wings behind his head and taking a deep breath. The sun was shining directly down at him, so even with his eyes closed there was a lot of light… which was why he guessed someone was on top of him when it went slightly darker. He cracked open an eye to look at an angry looking Shinx. "Ohai." He simply muttered, closing his eyes again.

"Ohai?! That's the only thing you say after forcing me to stay up twice the time tonight? And it wasn't my round either, it was Eric's, and you had the guts to walk into the room, wake me up again and say "Your turn" and then flew off somewhere… only to come back like fifty minutes later and tell me "Go catch some Zs". Like… what?! Where the hell did you go anyways?!" She asked, shouting so much that the Pidgeot was getting tiny drops of spit on his face.

He groaned, now regretting doing what he had done the previous night. "I went to check out the surroundings, see if there was anything interesting to explore. Turns out there's not a whole sodding lot, at least close by." He said, annoyed. Inside of his head however, he was regretting letting both Dark and Shade out in the middle of the night. In fact… His eyes went wide open. "Shit!" He swore out loud and got back up immediately, flapping and trying to take flight, scaring the living daylights out of Lucy in the process.

"What?! What?! What?!" She repeated the same question over and over again, trying to get the bid to answer at least once.

"Dark and Shade. I let them go out yesterday and they haven't come back yet." He responded, then took flight and flew towards the place where he had last seen them, whilst leaving a flabbergasted Lucy on the spot.

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Lucy screamed at the top of her lungs, completely horrified. Her screaming could be heard in the house, and it didn't go unnoticed by practically anyone. Outside of the house where Radius, Luna and Natalie having a little chat to a side that got interrupted by this scream. Hadrim, curled on a corner of the backyard, watching, raised his head to look at them, while Luca, that had gotten back to the kitchen, peared out of the window. Ichiro on his part had just heard a Shinx's cry but even the tone of voice made him peer out of his room, Daniel was at work, Clara was busy cleaning the living room and Dust had a personal video gaming party down in the basement, his room, with earplugs to hear only the game, yet he couldn't help but stop, thinkin he heard something not from the game… just to shrug it off and keep playing his game, thinking he had imagined it.

"What's with the roaring?" Natalie asked from their spot, looking at the Shinx and the flying away Pidgeot until his disappearance.

Lucy turned to face the Eevee, trying to keep her composure, but she could see a rather more familiar Eevee walking out of the house and she cracked under the invisible pressure. And besides, she wouldn't be the one that would receive a punishment, it would be Serge. "Last night, Dark and Shade walked out of the house and Serge didn't even try to stop them, and they haven't come back yet." The Shinx explained, her words barely reaching Elly's ears. Her face immediately went from one of concern to anger, then closed her eyes, anyone around her guessing that she was trying to contact Serge telepathically.

However, everyone from the Kaiser family visibly relaxed and sighed calmly. "Don't worry. They do that almost every time they can't sleep." Luca said calmly, Ichiro going back inside seeing that the situation was calm and hearing the Lucario saying that.

"Heh. They are surely sleeping at some clearing at the moment." Radius chuckled.

"Are you kidding me?! Going outside in the middle of the night is the worst possible thing they could do right now! Don't you know that we stand guard EVERY night?!" Lucy asked the younger and smaller Eevee, now distressed.

"Ehm… We never asked nor did you ever told us to begin with." The brown eyed Eevee answered lowering his ears a bit for the electric's type outburst.

"He has a point there, you know?" Luna backed Radius up, going to his side to confront the Shinx, Natalie doing the same silently. Hadrim having a close eye on this, sensing tension rising at alarming speeds. On other side, his mind was directed towards certain older Eevee. The Espeon gently pushing his mind against hers for her to sense him, he was asking for a connection with her mind. As a response however, Elly instinctively pushed him away, not in the mood for having a conversation with anyone that wasn't the flying type, with whom she was currently talking. Feeling this, the Espeon backed away with his mind but kept a close eye on the arguing four.

" _They're over here Elly, they're with me. They're alright._ " The Pidgeot informed her, the Eevee letting out a sigh of relief.

" _Eric's going to kill you when you come back, you know that right?_ _Knowing him, he'll probably get up and yell you a couple of things, even if his head is pounding. And if he doesn't, I will._ " She firmly stated, the Pidgeot on the other side sighing.

" _Hey, I know I screwed up, but there's no reason to act like that. Besides, I knew where they went last night and kept an eye on them, hence why I left my spot in the house, so it's under control._ " Serge said, trying to convince the Eevee that what he had done wasn't reckless and irresponsible. They may be grown pokémon capable of fighting, but they didn't necessarily possess enough combat experience to fight off a normal pokémon, let alone that bastard that was following them. And the thought of what could've happened made Elly tremble.

" _Serge, just… shut up. Get back, and depending on what they say I'll think about what to do._ " She cut him off as he was about to talk more, the bird simply answering with a dry and defeated "roger" before cutting the conversation. She sighed and looked at Hadrim. "Sorry about that. Serge's found both Dark and Shade, and he says they're perfectly alright, so there's no need to worry." She informed the violet pokémon, who was looking at how the Electric type was trying to defend her reaction in front of the three young pokémon in front of her.

"No worries. I was just asking." Hadrim answered her without taking his eyes away from those four..

"... and there have to be a ton of dangerous pokémon out there. Or trainers! You could be captured and taken away and nobody would even notice it until the very next morning! Don't you guys think that's more than enough reason for us to stand guard over night?" Lucy concluded her long rant about the many dangers that she could come up with that existed in that world.

The three younger Pokémon were tense for this but it was Radius who snapped. "Tell you what!? To begin with this place is part of a pack's territory and Dad's part of that pack! There are no violent pokémon around and when one appears we can tell and just get away. Second, Dad has a dome over this part of the territory so he can keep track of the minds that come in and out! And lastly, Dark and Shade had done what they did last night at least a thousand of times and nothing had happened! So tell me your point now!" He barked at her, the little Eevee stepping forwards, fur standing and moment that Hadrim took to butt in.

"Radius Eevee Kaiser. Back away and calm down." He said sternly, the Eevee of the striped kerchief immediately shrunk down to the floor and backed away from Lucy.

"But Dad-" He tried to argue, voice weak.

"No buts, little one. Calm down before you make a hole in the floor again." Hadrim interrupted his kit. He said nothing to Lucy since she was around out of his own jurisdiction in terms of behaviour, however. "I appreciate the concern, Lucy. " He said to her. "But I think you need something to vent out. More so, I think you all need to do just that." He said to her. The tension was now clear to him with this situation and unless there was something done to lessen it, someone would snap in a worse way than this.

"Vent out? I'm completely fine, mind you, it's you that you're way too relaxed about everything. You live in the middle of a forest, surrounded by wild pokémon and could easily be surprised by a large amount of pokémon attacking at the same time and coordinating. You're extremely vulnerable!" Lucy pointed out what she believed was painfully obvious in this situation, Elly agreeing with the Shinx, albeit she didn't express it physically.

"That you think?" The Espeon asks her. "Feel free I won't force you to change your mind. Just know this family has been living here for how much, Luca?" He asked his mate, since she had been living there since she hatched.

"Heh since Clara was a little human pup as far as I know, which makes it… well a lot of time, really. And nothing has happened, ever." She said from the kitchen window after thinking.

"Well… That might be possible, Lucy was pointing out that strategically, you couldn't be any more exposed, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you are absolutely BOUND to be attacked. It's just that if it happened, which could or couldn't happen, it'd be a mess. We have already noticed that pokémon here, or "wild pokémon" as I've heard them being called, aren't really that coordinated, and for the love of Arceus Lucy, a human trainer isn't going to come here and kidnap someone, specially in the middle of the night. You may have noticed that we haven't seen any humans nearby asides from the Kaiser family." Elly explained her points and thoughts on both opinions, trying to stay neutral, yet pointing out the flaws in both of those arguments.

"Well, first they'll have to fool my dome to begin with." Hadrim said. "You didn't really though I didn't have some sort of security system were my family lives, right?" He said to them. "Don't you remember some kind of pressure on your head the first day you spent here?" He asked. Lucy hadn't really noticed what he meant, and whatever kind of discomfort she felt she had probably blamed on the teleport, but Elly definitely had sensed it.

"The dome helps you tell who is inside the area and identify them as a threat or as a friend, but what happens when there's too many of them? Or if there's a psychic pokémon?" This last question was one she had been aching to ask for a long time, because she feared that was exactly the type of foe that was following them.

"For this dome to not notice there would have to be non mental activity at all… or a hiding magic item covering the one walking in, which I highly doubt." He said ' _But having into account where they come from…_ ' He finally came across that little detail he had missed and it made his mouth shut up and let him thinking. "Yet a psychic with a good barrier would be able to bypass the security, tho... " He said. He wanted to say something, to prove that the household was safe… he ended with no answer. They could fight away any Pokémon that tried to attack them, but whatever it was that had them this tense… It was making him get stressed too. "There is something you are right. If whatever it is that is after your group have you like this… it must be more than simply serious." He conceded in the end, defeated.

"Hey. Down there. Why so tense all of a sudden?" Ichiro asked from above, having peaked out of the window again while Lucy was talking to Radius, Luna and Natalie. "Arceus. You are so tense I could cut it with a finger. Get some sparring done and get some stress out of you all!" The young human said from above.

"True to that, we can worry about what may happen but staying on edge over it will not help us be prepared for it, right?" Luca added to the human's words. Hadrim nodded, slowly. "You can worry about whatever but what you can't do is get stressed about it. You can only be ready when the time comes." The Lucario ended."Weren't those your leader's words?" She asked the Espeon. who remembered the old male from his pack and smiled.

"That old Night Walker… always wise." He said, visibly relaxing again. He was decided now. If there was a need, they'll have to be ready… for anything.

Elly sighed in defeat. "Well… I guess you're right, we're a bit tense lately. It's just taking care of so many things at once is slowly getting to us… and it's funny because yesterday I had this talk with Eric too… We know you're capable of taking care for yourselves normally, but so far none of this has been normal for us, so… We're just worried that if we slip up someone may wound up really hurt or worse."

"Well, how would you know what others are willing to do to help you if they do not take a shot for you?" Now was Radius the one asking this, the Eevee was much more calm now than when his father interrupted his arguing with the Shinx. "If others take a hit in your place I'd say that that shows they care for you." He ended.

"Yeah… but it kinda makes you feel like shit when someone takes a hit for you." Lucy commented.

"Well, let's get out of this south mood and get inside. Lunchtime." Luca called them all and went back inside.

* * *

"Did you really had to be so hard!? My head still hurts!" Dark complained to Serge while pawing at his mane since someone decided to wake him up by pulling on it. The scream of pain the Zoroark let out for that even scared Shade awake until she saw who it was.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to do it had you woken up the first time when I screamed at you. And by the way, thanks to you two, best case scenario you'll be having roasted me for dinner tonight." He said, waiting for the Zoroark to fully get back up.

Dark licked his muzzle. "Sounds delicious." He joked and stood up to then stretch, groaning in pleasure and fully waking up. Serge snarled at him and was tempted to slap the back of his head for that one, though probably he'd hurt himself more than the Zoroark, since so far he didn't think there was anything in there to hurt.

"I'd say we are late to have lunch." Shade said looking at the sky. "We should get back shortly." She added, not wanting to be let without her part.

"Agreed on that." Dark said and they started to head back, Serge keeping an eye out, determined to make sure that these two made it back home without a single scratch on them.

Once at the house, the rest were eating calmly, or so it seemed, when they came into the dining room. Dark had taken the walk to get rid of most of the dirt and leaves on his fur and mane, Shade had done the same herself so when they arrived they were at least presentable.

Elly looked at the bird behind them, who merely rolled his eyes as she glared. "I told you they were fine…" He simply muttered, walking away.

"And having a nice dream until you arrived. Still we would have slept even more in if you hadn't." Dark said. Serge rose a wing over his head, and even though nobody understood why he was doing that, if he had a middle finger he'd be flipping off the Zoroark right now. He was not pleased with either of them at the time.

"Told you." Radius said out of the blue.

"Shut up!" Lucy complained, already tired of the Eevee.

"Drop it. Both of you." Luca said gently to her pup and the Shinx, who just kept eating, glaring at eachother every so often. They all were eating in silence and the mood was kind of awkward. Luca was thinking how to break the ice in any way but she could not come up with much ideas for the moment. Yet the Lucario kept thinking until an idea popped in her mind that might work. "Well girls. You wanna go shopping later this afternoon?" Luca asked. "Dunno try some clothes, get something you like." She added, trying to change the topic in everyone's heads and hoping that an afternoon out will take their heads out of their stress.

"Sounds great!" Shade was the first to talk, her tail wagging and smiling widely for this. Natalie on her side reacted more calmly. Yet her tail wagged just as wild.

"I'd love to go too." The smaller of the Eevee's said to the Lucario. Luna just nodded with a bit of interest since she had never been shopping.

"And you?" The aura pokémon asked Elly and the other girls.

"Shopping? Might as well, since I'm not going to be doing much of anything this afternoon, other than taking care of Eric… But you can take care of him just fine, right Jake?" She asked. She really wanted to go somewhere else, and if Eric was in the Sneasel's hands, there was nothing to worry about. The ice type nodded, following Elly's words. "Then in that case I'll go." She added right afterwards.

Lucy looked at her plate for a second, then looked at her friend, then at Luca. "I… don't know, I don't really like shopping for anything, and none of us use clothes… are we going to do anything else?" The Electric type asked.

"Well I just want to take you all out for a female only afternoon and do whatever we want to do." Luca said winking at her, just wanting to have some girl fun without males for a day.

Lucy considered it. She wasn't exactly tired of Zed, or at least Zed himself, because she was getting tired of him being reluctant about everything all the time, specially when she wanted to have fun. However, she decided to go with the other females, merely for the hell of it, but also she wanted to try out something new.

"Then it's settled. You guys gonna do anything?" Luca asked the males.

"I think I'll get some training done. Haven't trained in a week or so." Dust said, stretching his arms a bit. The others just… didn't know what to do at the moment. Serge was probably flying around, trying to find something interesting.

"I think I'm just going to stay and watch a bit of Tv. I dunno, it's got me intrigued." Zed said, Nox agreeing with him, although he was staying mainly because Emily was also going to stay.

"You already know what I will be doing until you come back" Jake simply stated, finishing the food on his plate.

"Fair enough." Luca said smiling and nodding. "Well, then. Shall we go?" She asked, standing up, everyone that had agreed on the idea getting up as well. After saying their farewells and getting everything ready, they left an hour after they finished eating.

* * *

Some hours later, the females were scattered around into a clothing shop. Luca was looking at some bracelets that got her eye. Luna was with Natalie in the area of the ear bows, Elly was with them as well, trying to find a bow that reminded of the one Eric had bought her a long time ago. Luna helping Nat try some on her and the younger Eevee doing the same for the Vulpix. Shade was on her own looking at some upper body clothes along with Lucy, who was having trouble holding her laughter as she stared at all the ridiculous clothes and the models. On other side, the Shiny just found those quite nice. Even more in very cold days or in special days. Looking at this and at that just going around. To the ones that had never come shopping, Luca just said that they could look and try on things if they wanted, that they'll meet at the entrance when they are all done.

Back at the ear bows section. Natalie had settled for a plain white bow the which she had tied at the base of her ear while Luna chose a yellow one with a fake red jewel attached in the tie. They both giggled a bit seeing the little mess of bows scattered at their paws. It was then when they saw Elly still looking at the bows and not settling for any of them, both younger females looked at each other for a moment and then looked at her with a mutual smile.

"Hey, Elly." Luna called to the older Eevee. "Wanna try some?" She asked standing and smiling at her. Elly turned to look at the Vulpix and tilted her head to the side, not sure about what she meant at first. However, when she saw the bows both her and Natalie had on their heads, she smiled and nodded. With that answer, both younger females squealed and, by turns and letting her take a look on the mirror by the ear bows stand, they started putting bows on her and made her strike some poses in front of the mirror so to see how they fit her. After more than a dozen different bows, she started to think she won't find any that would convince her. Even more when the fire vixen approached with a bow that matched her eye colour and with some see through cloth on the laces that added some shining to it.

"Well how is it?" Luna asked her while Nat was already searching for other bow to try on the blue eyed normal type.

"Hmm… it does match my eyes, but… I don't think blue is a good color for a bow… It's pretty and I like it, but I'm not too convinced." She expressed her opinion on the bow, not really sure about it.

"Well, there are plenty of them to try." The Vulpix said, taking the bow off of her while Natalie approached with another bow. This one was red with it's borders being purple. Elly inspected it closely.

"Hmm… This one I like as well, and the purple border is quite a nice touch. Gives that "royal" air that everyone goes crazy about. I might wear this if I buy it, but… maybe if we have to go somewhere fancy, like the capital." Elly said, grabbing the bow with her powers, taking a fondness in the accessory, yet she still didn't have anything for when she wanted to look pretty while having a fancy dinner with friends.

"Well. Try it on!" Nat squealed at her with a smile and her tail wagging, even offered to help to put her the bow, just as Luna did. Elly blushed, reluctant to do so, but eventually decided to do so, using her powers to quickly tie it around her ear, replicating the same bow.

"Well? How does it look?" She inquired, not really sure how she looked like.

"I'd say it looks great on you." Came Luca's voice from a side. "And you have a mirror right there." She pointed. Then noticed the little mess Nat and Luna had done while trying on bows themselves. "My, my. You went a bit wild, didn't you?" She asked, the younger normal type and the fire type just giggled sheepishly in response. "We better put this all on place before a clerk comes and kicks us out for this mess." The Lucario joked a bit while starting to pick up bows, Luna and Nat doing the same, Elly helping as well. After a few minutes all the bows where on place, except for one, which Luca picked up, this being a blue bow adorned with a pearl at the tie. She was about to put it with the others when Elly's eyes laid on it, using her powers to gently take it out of the Lucario's paws. Without saying a word and really quickly, she removed the red bow and tied it around her ear, then looked at the nearest mirror.

"This one… it looks so pretty!" She exclaimed, happy to have finally found something she liked. She looked at the other females, showing it off. "What do you think? I think even Eric would like to wear this one!" She exclaimed, joking about her mate.

The three other females just laughed a bit for that, finding the image of the fighting type wearing a bow quite funny. "It's pretty and not so formal as the other." Luca said, almost choking on her laughter. "You want both bows?" She asked her. Elly responded by nodding enthusiastically. "Okay then. Let's find Lucy and Shade." the Lucario said picking up all the bows the girls had and putting them in a shopping basket.

Meanwhile, Shade was asking Lucy her opinion on how some dresses looked on her. The Shiny had picked up some clothes and asked the Shinx to help her try them on… The Eevee had even picked up something that she thought would fit the electric type nicely… Other thing was making her try it on. The Eevee at the moment was trying a red cloth that covered her chest, legs and back, secured to her tail with a buttoned cloth strip. Her belly wasn't covered by the cloth while she held another thing for the Shinx, but the electric type didn't have to look at whatever she was holding for her to start shaking her head repeatedly. "Hell no!"

"Come on! You really not gonna even try one on?" Shade asked her after letting the cloth on its spot. "There has to be something you wanna wear on special occasions or sometime." She said.

"The only pokémon that wear clothes in our world are those insufferable rich pansies that complain about absolutely EVERYTHING. If I appear around town like that I'll be a laughing stock, and probably lose my dignity! I hate it with a passion!" She shouted, scoffing and growling at the clothing article in question, which she considered the worst offender.

"Well. Maybe there, but here you see my family is not rich and I wear this every day." Shade said pointing at her own bow, which she was very careful not to take off when she took the shirt off and she started to look around for anything more to try on herself. "On other side we only wear this on special days, like a birthday, a night out or in Christmas." Shade said while she kept looking for other clothes. "Well what you wanna see?" The Eevee asked her.

"I don't want to see anything of this tacky s… stuff!" She quickly censored herself. "The only thing you will ever see me is a ribbon at the end of my tail, and that's about it. And I've only ever used it once." Lucy explained.

"A tail bow? Well those are over there, wanna take a look?" The Shiny asked, trying to keep calm."You might like some" She said. After talking it called her attention that a human female was picking up a pink dress big enough for a fully grown and even evolved pokémon. The thing was all pink and had a tutu. "Now I don't want to be in the fur of the one that has to wear that." Shade snickered.

Lucy turned to look at the dress… and burst out laughing. "Oh my gosh, that looks like a clown dress!" She spouted, laughing, even though it hurt her soul to see the color pink giving life to something so horrid. Although it was something only a select few knew, those select few being her own mate and Elly, she liked the color pink.

Shade laughed with her after a bit. "Well… there are better things to do with that color. Well, let's go see the tail bows." She said to the Electric type starting to trot towards the area were those bows were.

They both walked over to the bow section and started looking through the available products, eyeing a few bows, until their eyes landed on a pink bow that was calling to the Shinx. Shade called Lucy and turned to face the Shinx, who looked really sad. "I don't find anything interesting." She said, making the shiny pokémon look forward, confused. The pink bow was now completely gone, all of the bows besides it moving as if someone had just run by really quickly.

"Ow. No joy! There are some pretty here. Come. Let's go back with the others." Shade said to the Shinx and started walking to find the others. She hadn't got anything for herself as well since she could not find something appropriate. "Another day. Another try." The young Eevee smiled, trying to cheer them both up. Lucy didn't answer immediately, but decided to nod in agreement, eyeing more bows, but unable to find anything that caught her eye. Everything was either too plain or insanely tacky for her tastes, there wasn't a middle point.

"Lucy. Shade. Over here." Luna called them while Luca was in the line to pay the things they've picked up. Lucy and Elly met up again whilst the other three chatted, eyeing the shopping bag that Luca was holding, filled up with quite a few clothing articles. The Eevee leaned close to the Shinx's ears.

"Bet you ten silver poké it costs around 400." Elly guessed, looking at the exaggerated amount of accessories they wanted to bring with them. Lucy however, shook her head, a devious smile on her face.

"I think it's going to be 430." She said, accepting the bet and increasing the cost of their little shopping excursion. Sadly, they did not have any poké on them, but all things considered, their currency probably wouldn't be allowed in that world… even though they had the exact same names, which threw them off quite a bit when they realized they didn't use coins made out of various metals, but instead multi-colored papers. It was then that Luca got her turn and started placing the articles on top of the counter and the human male at the other side started picking them. Then Luca noticed something she knew she had not put in the shopping bag, a pink bow, and stood looking at it for a moment, Lucy's fur standing on edge as she realized that there was a large chance that she wouldn't buy it. Her aura senses picked up on something when she had the bow in paw and about to let it aside, yet, the Lucario decided to pass it to the man, who picked it up as well as the last articles.

"Ok. It would be eighty five poké, Miss." The man smiled at her. Luca picking up the bag of money she had hanging from her neck and paid for it all, while Lucy and Elly got shocked at the low price of the articles. Luca got a bag with everything inside. "Thank you for coming here. We hope to see you again soon." The man said.

"Bye." Luca said to the man with a slight head bow. "Now, girls. Where do you wanna go?" She asked them since coming here was her idea, now she wanted them to offer a place. She had to hold back a giggle when she saw the expressions on Elly's and Lucy's face. "Close your muzzle girls, before you eat a fly." She joked a bit. Both of the females recovered from the surprise and looked at the adult female.

"Well… We've been out for the entire afternoon, how about we go back home and grab something to eat on the way?" Lucy asked, remembering the many food stands that they had passed by on their way there, selling various drinks and foods like roasted berries.

"I second that. But we have just been a few hours into the actual shopping." Luna said and her tummy then growled a bit, making the fire type blush. "Snack time?" She asked nervously. Elly and Lucy giggled and nodded, agreeing with the fire type, although they didn't know what they were going to get.

Luca looked around, trying to see any place that seemed good enough without being a bar. She opted for a food stand in the middle of the plaza and went there. The offer there was of normal berries, roasted berries, even a macedonia and various plates barry based. "Heh. hence why it is called 'Berry Paradise'." She said. "Woah, even berry ice cream? That's new." She almost squealed. "What about here, girls?" She asked the group. Natalie nodded being okay with it, Luna just wanted to eat something. Elly and Lucy were confused as to what ice cream was, but judging from the look of the other pokémon, they guessed it was pretty good.

"Is there Pecha Berry flavoured ice cream? If so, I want it." Elly said, unsure if what she just said was possible.

"I'll take… yellow gummy!" Lucy exclaimed, getting excited about enjoying an ice cream with the flavour of her favourite sweet.

"Let me check." Luca said looking the offer again. "Well there is no ice-cream of yellow gummy but you could have them over it." The Lucario said to the Shinx, whose eyes went wide open in glee, and decided on vanilla flavour with those yellow gummies sprinkled all over the dessert. Natalie decided to take an orange flavoured ice-cream while Luna opted for a sitrus flavoured. Finally, Luca asked for a strawberry one once a waitress came to take their order.

"Okay. Take a seat and wait just a minute." The young woman said to them with a warm smile. Luca calmly walked to a table near the stand and sat down, Lucy doing the same whilst Elly looked at how the human took the ice cream and prepared their orders. Natalie, curious as she was, stood there too to see how it was done too. However, what caught her eyes wasn't the preparation of the ice-creams but the other waiter inside the stand. Her eyes opened wide open as she felt her chest shrinking to the point of making her feel an uncomfortable pressure. That human, was a male, but it wasn't that, the thing was that he made her memory click and she remembered… Him. She tried not to… but her own mind betrayed her, the memories flooding back to the point of tears welling up and the Eevee shaking all over.

Elly felt the alterations in Natalie's mood, turning to look at her, noticing her teary eyes and horrified face when she looked at the human male. "Hey, Natalie, are you alright?" The bigger Eevee asked, concerned about Nat's mood.

Hearing her made the emerald eyed Eevee turn her head towards the older one. "I… I j-just..." She tried to talk but words couldn't surpass the lump that had formed in her throat.

Elly comforted her with a smile as she realized what was going on. "Bad memories, eh?" She asked, though she knew the answer would be "yes". She could see the symptoms from a mile away, and guess what the victim was thinking, although she had no idea what the memories were about. "Are they from when you were human?" She followed, trying to keep her voice down. Natalie could only nod at her as a response, trying not to look back at the human she just looked to the floor.

"What is it?" Came Luca's worried voice. She had also felt the sudden change in the mood and had come to see what was the problem, kneeling by their side, but Nat couldn't answer. Luca didn't bother to stop herself from picking up the younger normal type, who pressed against her in her hug, while she waited for an answer from Elly at least.

"I'll grab the ice cream, but right now I think you should just let her be, she's a little scared about something, so let her calm down first before you bombard her with questions." Elly told the Lucario, giving her some tips. Luca nodded and went back to the table, keeping the Eevee in her arms and not making questions. By the time Elly took the ice-creams to them Nat at least was breathing more calmly and had stopped shaking, but she was still dead silent. Luna would have asked, but she didn't, deciding it was probably best, and started with her ice-cream. Lucy knew better than say anything or try to start a conversation regarding the Eevee's state, since she had been living with a depressed Elly for almost an entire year and had a really good idea of what could happen.

"Woah, this is really good!" The Vulpix said, both because it was really good, and in an attempt to cheer up Natalie, who at least started to smile while enjoying shyly her own icy snack. Elly started licking the ice cream delighted with both the flavour and temperature of the dessert, enjoying it thoroughly.

"Hmmm! It's so cold, I love it!" Elly exclaimed, Lucy following her friend's example and trying out the ice cream, enjoying the vanilla flavor, but going mad when she tasted one of the yellow gummies. It wasn't as tasty as the ones they had in Spinda's bar, but it still tasted like them, and the flavour, albeit weak, was more than enough to make her hairs stand on edge, sparks running through her fur, cracking.

"Hmmm! It's soooo goood!" The Shinx said between giggles.

"Glad you are enjoying it." Luca smiled at them all, enjoying her own icy strawberry treat. Nat coming back to herself slowly while she enjoyed her own.

"True. It's very good." she finally spoke up. Elly looked at Natalie and nodded, giving her a smile, deciding to not question the Eevee about what had made her be like that and instead enjoy her ice cream and relax, whilst Lucy was way too busy eating it really quickly, having eaten almost all of the gummy pieces by now. And that was when her teeth started to hurt, along with her head.

"Ow ow ow ow!" She shouted, stopping her lapping and pressing the side of her muzzle. "What the hell, it hurts so much!" She complained, looking at the ice cream in confusion.

"Don't eat it so quickly, Lucy. Too much cold will give a brain freeze." Natalie said to the Shinx. "That being the pain you are feeling right now in your head." The younger Eevee chuckled. "Take time to warm up a bit your mouth before taking more." She suggested. Lucy nodded and waited for a while before carefully sticking out her tongue from her muzzle and taking slow licks, a little scared now.

"You at least can savour it before it melts in your mouth." Luna giggled at Lucy slightly while she kept with her ice-cream which was starting to melt and the little fire vixen muzzle being slightly dirty with a bit of it, yet she was enjoying it a lot. The other's ice-creams were just dripping a bit compared to the Vulpix's one. Even though Lucy had slowed down, she managed to finish her ice cream first, or at least what she wanted to eat. Even though there was barely any ice cream left, the Shinx stopped eating as soon as she ate all the yellow gummies. When she looked up, she noticed that the rest were still not even halfway through with theirs.

"Oi… Why are you all so slow?" She asked, a bit annoyed.

"Well, we try to enjoy a bit more the ice-cream without hurry." Natalie answered giggling a bit, licking her muzzle when she stopped for a bit to answer. Lucy licked the ice cream off her face and growled, jumping down from her spot.

"I'm going to go look around for a bit. Shouldn't take me too long…" And with that, the Shinx zipped away, her speed sending napkins flying away. She stopped in front of various stores that showcased a variety of products: from clothes that she couldn't help but laugh at to other things like shoes or hats, at the which she stared in confusion. Whilst running towards a much further away part of the shopping mall, she came across a shop with some rather… interesting offers. She looked around, finding no one to be staring, and ran in at full speed, coming out a few minutes later just as fast, a mad blush on her face.

After this last excursion, she returned to where the group was, once again sending everything that was light flying. "Well… that was interesting." She commented.

"What was?" Luna asked. Luca was paying for the Ice-creams. Nat trying with all her will not to turn around and look at the stand, taking an interest in what the Shinx would answer. The Shinx didn't know if she should answer or not, and decided to go with an ambiguous answer.

"Well… there were a couple of ridiculous things I saw, and… let's just say that I found something I'd like Zed to look at, because I think it was quite interesting! Shame he didn't come." She said, kind of regretting her mate didn't come with them. but that was the point of a females only hang out.

"Heh. Wonder what that thing so interesting is to catch your eye." Shade said, knowing the Shinx was pretty select in her interests. Lucy stuck her tongue out at Shade, meaning that she wouldn't tell, and, after Luca came back, the group started their trip back through the shopping mall and back home.

"Well this was a fun day. Wanna repeat some other day?" Luna asked when they exited the mall. The afternoon had gone really fast, and twilight was over them, tainting the sky with its fiery orange colours. Elly nodded, happy that she had found something to wear for special occasions, and Lucy answered with a vague "I dunno".

"Well. It will be for another day." Luca said calmly while leading the way back home. Once back, Hadrim was the first to welcome them back from the roof of the porch.

"Male! I'm gonna head up and go to sleep right away." Natalie said, feeling tired after what they had done. Luna on her side stretched vigorously.

"I'll just rest my paws a bit more. Not feeling sleepy just yet." The Vulpix said calmly, heading inside.

In a contrast to both Luna and Natalie, Elly and Lucy were wide awake and active, but didn't think that talking with the Espeon was the first of their worries. "Sorry Hadrim, but I want to go check on Eric and see if his condition has improved or worsened, as well as show him some stuff I bought!" She said, grabbing with her psychic powers both of her ribbons and the mysterious pink bow, then headed inside.

Lucy followed the Eevee. "I have to go see if Zed's alright as well. Knowing him, he's probably lying on the ground and sulking to himself without anything to do. Later!" She got into the house, both of the pokémon heading to their destinations and leaving a dumbfounded Espeon behind… not before Elly quickly gave the pink bow to Lucy when they were completely alone, the Shinx dashing upstairs quick enough so that nobody saw her. She then came back down, this time without the ribbon. "Thanks, if they had found out I probably would've died from embarrassment." She said, hugging her friend, who returned the hug with a smile.

"Hey, that's what besties are for, right? Although… You could tell what it was you found so interesting for both you and Zed." Elly teased her friend, who giggled and leaned closer to whisper the Eevee something. The normal type looked at her with her eyes wide open, then they both started laughing softly. "You think it will work with him?" She asked, taking a step up the stairs.

"Eeeh, I dunno, but I think it's about time I take the initiative, since he doesn't want to. Anyways, take care to not catch whatever Eric has, I don't want you to be spitting snot as well." She jokingly said, Elly laughing.

"Will do!" She answered and headed upstairs, whilst Lucy remained downstairs to find Zed.

Meanwhile, back at the entrance, Luca stood there waiting for a surprised Espeon to come in. "That was a bit weird. I just greeted you all." He said jumping down from the roof. Luca just shrugged, not knowing why Elly and Lucy had literally run away from the Espeon like that.

"Well I ended buying a pink tail bow today that I didn't put on the shopping bag. Yet you don't see me asking about it." She answered. "They'll have their reasons to not want to be around you right now. Maybe because they don't want a lecture from you about what happened before lunch?"

"Whatever." He said coming in and upon passing by her side, when she closed the door she gave a little jump letting out a "Rii!" sound of surprise.

"Ohoho. Someone's feeling a bit playful tonight?" She asked turning to look at her smirking mate.

"Dunno. The only thing that is sure is that there's a fire burning nearby… maybe you know how to cool it off?" He told her suggestively while walking towards their room.

"Well, I'm a little cold. You wouldn't mind turning the heater on, would you?" She said going to him and holding his tail while going inside.

"Believe me, it's about to burst." He answered, closing the door with his psychic as she pulled him inside by the tail.

After some minutes, Dust came back from his training. Entering the house and locking the door after him. He had a bath in the river and now went to the kitchen to take a can of coke. When he went to the stairs towards the basement he passed by his parents door and heard something. He stopped to listen. After a moment he went downstairs at a quicker than normal pace, closing the door to the stairs behind him. ' _Not an image I want in my head… EVER!_ ' He thought.

* * *

Nothing better than a calm afternoon. No training, no going out. And even Hadrim was giving them a little rest from the sparring routine he had put everyone from the household into. Just laying down in the living room or wherever they wanted, and do whatever they wanted to do. Dark was with Dust in the basement, both males enjoying a video game session. Hadrim was enjoying a book in his reading space, this being the armchair of the living room. Natalie was doing the same, in another corner of the same room. Luna was just watching tv with Ichiro. However, not everyone had nothing to do. Luca was helping Clara with the laundry. Taking the clothes that were just washed and going to put them to dry outside. From a few days, the Lucario had a weird walking and she seemed to have a hard time sitting down. Almost everyone had noticed this but no one asked and the adult female was glad for that.

That wouldn't last long, however, though for the time being, the members of Team Star were scattered all over the household as well: Eric and Elly, accompanied by Zed and Lucy, were struggling to come to grips with a board game Dust had insisted them to play, called Monopoly. It was… exciting, to say the least.

"Why are you giving him the green?! He's gonna leave our asses sore with those!" Lucy shouted at Zed, who was desperate, stuck between a rock and a hard place when it came to both real life and the game. He was about to trade his green property to Eric in exchange for 500 poké. It was a fair deal… except that the Riolu would get a monopoly in the process.

"I won't even have enough money to build anything on those spaces Lucy, and he needs the money to keep playing." He points at the Eevee to his right. "She should be the one you should worry about! She has houses on both yellows and reds! She's about to bankrupt him!" The Riolu defended himself from the Shinx's accusations, whilst Elly just sat still, a smug grin on her face, feeling confident about winning the game. She was right in the end, but the game wouldn't come to an end for about another forty minutes, when she would bankrupt Lucy and win the game.

Whilst they debated like this, Serge was talking with Nox about what they both considered "guy" stuff, even though it was mostly Nox expressing his insecurities about Emily, who was starting to hang out with Dust a bit too much for his likings, and the Pidgeot chastising him for thinking like that, trying to give him some tips on how to interest Emily in him. And finally, Jake was staring at the drying process in the which Luca was participating.

Her… condition, had not gone unnoticed by him however, and there was a burning question inside of his head that he knew would never be answered if he didn't open his mouth right then and there. He had to know the answer to this question if he was to ever understand the illogical train of thought that many times his friends blamed on their "emotions". He walked up to the Lucario, a calm expression on his face, perfectly illustrating his inner calm with that situation.

"Luca, may I ask you a question?" He spoke up, his words reaching the Lucario's ears who stopped to look at him and smiled.

"Sure. But I gotta keep hanging up the clothes. What's it?" She asked the Ice type walking back into the house.

"Why participate in such rough sessions of coitus, when the end result will bring discomfort for such an extended period of time? Is the pleasure worth it, or is merely an attempt at pleasing your sentimental partner as he goes through a brief period of time when he has an intense desire to mate?" Jake asked all of this without even flinching, winking or cringing in any way. And why would he? To him, what he had asked was a legitimate, interesting question, of the which he expected a fully logical answer that would satisfy his curiosity and enlighten him in that fog that surrounded that elusive term called "emotion". His lack of knowledge in the field had lead him to ask that question, which for him was completely normal, but for anyone else who knew what he had just asked, it would've felt like Jake had just committed a crime.

Luca stood looking at him and a deep blush decorated her face. She felt a rush to hit him for such an invasion of privacy but she was better than to snap so violently at the first. "Jake! That's a question that you never ask!" She squealed to him, like an embarrassed adolescent female instead of a young grown female and mother. "It is an invasion of privacy, thus a total disrespect. I get your curiosity but you should not get into others' private time with their mates." She said to him, trying to be calm but with a bit of a stern tone in her voice. After that she just hoped that he didn't insist on getting an answer.

Jake wasn't deterred by her answer, and instead pressed onward. "Why is this such a private manner in the first place? I am not a perverted me, unlike Nox or Dust, and I do not have a mate either, hence I am not breaking any rules or someone elses' trust. My question comes purely for a scientific point of view, mere, children's curiosity, one could say. Is there so much wrongfulness in my reasoning?" He inquired, still unable to understand.

"Jake. No. Stop asking." She said to him, shaking her head and still blushing brightly. "Just asking that question is stepping into my private life with Hadrim and, even if you don't want, that is disrespectful towards him and myself. So please. Stop asking me for an answer." She asked him again while going more into the house to try and end this embarrassing conversation.

Jake followed her. "But why is this so awkward? I am not asking this information to then share it with anyone, it is simple for personal gain. And what if this moment never comes in my life? What if…"

While he kept talking, the shame slowly turned into annoyment and she just could not hold herself anymore after the last thing he said. Luca turned to him with a really ticked off look on her face and enveloped her right paw in ice, forming a fist that then reformed into an icy mace that quickly came down right on top of his head with a hit that would have let a lump around as big as half his head. "That information is just non of anyone's business except mine and my mate!" She almost roared at him to then turn around and go away fuming and still blushing like a cherry berry, passing by the living room on her way towards the washroom to get more clothes to hang up outside.

Jake rubbed his head, not hurt, but mainly confused as to what had just happened. After that weak, yet effective punch, he decided to drop the conversation, sighing and rubbing his forehead, where a huge bruise had developed, bulging out as if it were a cartoon.. "Well… I guess I'll just drop the conversation…" His body bent forward, depressed. "But she really didn't need to do that…" He began sulking to himself and just walked into the house slowly, deciding to ask that question to either Eric or Elly whenever he caught them after the act.

"You should put some ice on that lump." Luna told him seeing the Ice Type come into the living room after a ticked off Lucario and with that… hit. Jake looked at her and nodded. He would do that… later.

Or he would do it right then and there, because even though he was trying to block out the pain, it was way too intense for him to be able to think straight. He gave up and went into the kitchen, opening the freezer and trying to get a bag of ice to reduce the pain. He then went to the living room and simply sat down, frowning as he rubbed the ice bag over the ever growing lump on his head, regretting somehow angering Luca to the point of attacking him.

* * *

Radius on his side was bored to the point of climbing the furniture. He didn't want to watch tv or go playing video games with his brothers, so he just walked around the house almost without stop. Until he noticed Natalie reading and decided to go with her. Maybe he could read a bit too, it has been long since he opened a book himself. But first he went to take a drink, and decided to pour some for Nat as well. The Eevee of the kerchief pouring some orange juice in a bowl, being careful to not drop the juice jar. After that he took a coke can for himself. Balancing the bowl on his back with his tail and picking up the can with his mouth, he walked slowly towards the living room. Going to where Natalie was, reading her book.

He let his can down and this made her look at him. "Oh. hey, Radius. What is it?" She asked him smiling and eyeing the bowl that was so cautiously balanced.

"Nothing. I just brought you a bowl of orange juice." He said to her smiling back and letting the bow down.

"Why, thanks!" She said wagging her tail, her eyes sparkling slightly, after all, the juice was homemade from that morning by Hadrim, who also took that day to make some breakfast himself.

"Don't mention it." Radius said blushing slightly. "What are you reading?" He asked her.

She stood and took some sips of the juice. Murring in enjoyment to then look at him. "Heh. Daddy let me one of his favorites books to read since I have finished mines." She said. She had grown used to call Hadrim that way and the Espeon didn't seem bothered. Indeed he enjoyed hearing her even if it was just a nickname for her to call him. She closed the book after marking the page, showing him the title 'Heart's Journey'. The front part of the book showing an art of a silver furred Jolteon sideways with a longing look on his emerald eyes. On the other side being an art of a Luxray looking forwards. Its fur being a shade of blue as dark as the depths of the seas and his eyes shone with a calm and warm gleam, and he held a royal expression. In the center of the cover was the art of a crown made out of wood, decorated with gold strings and autumn leaves and with a topaz in the frontal part of it.

"Oh! I know this book!" He said excited and his tail wagging. "I like it a lot! How the Jolteon has a lot of adventures and fights while he tries to get back home with the Leafeon and also the fights of that Luxray." He says, hyped all of a sudden, making Nat giggle a lit.

"Calm down, thunder boy. I haven't read it yet. I'm just starting." Natalie said smiling at him, making the male Eevee blush slightly while looking at her. "So… you like reading?" She asked, trying to avoid an awkward silence.

"Yeah. I do." He answered.

"Wanna read it with me?" She offered him. His ears perked up and his tail wagged again as he nodded furiously and she offered him a place by her side.

Both Eevee burned hours reading the book and telling the other when they were ready to turn the page. They read a good few hundred of pages before deciding to stop. "Male! I can't get tired of this story." Radius said. "I like Voltage a lot. How he deals with his foes and always comes out the winner!" He said, posing proudly with his chest puffed up.

Nat giggled again for this display, and made him blush again. "I like how he only thinks in going back to his love after what happened at the beginning, and how he refuses other females. On the other paw, I also like how Prince Xen puts his people before himself. And how Princess Autumn refuses to take any other that isn't her beloved knight!" Natalie said, squealing at the last phrase and smiling widely. Radius on his part only talked about the battle scenes of the book, like any little male would do, something her adolescent mind found quite funny and rather cute. "You'll learn to appreciate more than the battles at some point." She giggled to him. "Like the parts where the characters hug, kiss, rub cheeks…" She listed, and stopped, laughing a bit when she saw the other Eevee making funny faces to all her list.

"Never!" He said, extending the word only with it's final sound, making it in a way that he was faking a growl, something that only amused Nat a bit more and that she found extremely cute.

Hadrim took his eyes away from his book to look at them while the two kits were talking about the book and scenes, and a smile came to his muzzle and he then went back to his reading. Meanwhile, Dark was looking from the hallway's door at them. He liked seeing his lil' sis smiling and happy, but something kept him from smiling, and the Zoroark only went back to the basement with a butter flavour popcorn bucket and two glasses filled with ice.


	6. Chapter 5 - The Challengers

**Chapter 5**

 **The Challengers**

The sun was setting over the horizon, but even though the day would soon come to an end, the Kaiser household was as lively as ever. It had been three weeks since Team Star had come to that world, and by then they were mostly used to it, although there were many concepts and things that escaped their understanding. The whole team were trying to take it slow and calm down, but they feared what could be happening back home, and so they grew more and more anxious as time went by. Serge tried his best to ignore the whole situation and fully backed up Elly's position, who said that there were more than enough pokémon in Treasure Town's guild to take care of all the petty thieves that appeared.

"We can give them a bit of protagonism really, we've been all over the place for the last… what? Year and a half? Meanwhile, they were mostly sitting around in the guild and trying to manage the town's reconstruction. We shouldn't worry too much." Serge assured Lucy and Jake, who were needlessly worrying over the issue whilst playing a game of Ludo.

"That is correct, however… Do you not reminiscence those strange vegetal life forms that had taken a hold of those pokémon cadavers? They were not normal by any means, as I searched high and low, yet I did not find a single indication of their existence in our world's history." Jake expressed the source of his worries, rolling the die. He got a five, moving his piece right next to Elly's. "You have been devoured…" He took Elly's piece, which was green back to her yard, much to her dismay.

"Oh come on! You're starting to play like Zed!" She complained, this being the fifth time one of her tokens had been taken back to the start.

"Yeah… That's just ridiculous. I mean, he's my mate and all, but… I just don't get how he's so damn lucky all the time in these games." Lucy said out loud, although mostly she was talking to herself, trying to switch the conversation topic.

"Oh yeah, I remember you guys told me about that. Was he really that bad?" Serge asked, referring to Zed's strange ability. Both of the females around the board nodded repeatedly, the Eevee shuddering as she remembered what had happened a week ago.

"It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. I won the first game and I got confident, but then… Zed just began getting these AMAZING rolls, where he would land on the best properties and avoid ours entirely, or getting the best cards out of chance or community chest…" She started numbering the many occasions in which Zed's ridiculous luck had helped him. Lucy growled as she remembered the most infamous of all.

"And do you remember that time when we just started the freaking game and got BOTH the reds and yellows without us getting a say in the matter?!" Lucy reminded her friend, which triggered yet another groan from the normal type, followed by simultaneous laughter from both females, leaving the males confused.

"I am inclined to agree… even if it is the most unreasonable thing I have ever witnessed, that Zed luck has sometimes reached ridiculous levels. Like that occasion when Spinda held a lottery for several bags of multi-flavoured gummies…" Jake began the story, but Serge cut him off as he remembered it.

"And then the guy just walks up, tries it a single time and wins the big prize. Yeah, that… that was something alright." Serge said as he was reminded of that incredible occurrence, when the whole café just burst into celebrations and cheers whilst Zed became a trembling ball of black fur, blushing from pure embarrassment. "My beak dropped to the floor when that happened. Like this." As he finished the short tale, Serge comically opened his beak wide, dropping his whole body to the floor, making sure that the bottom half of his beak hit the ground. Elly and Lucy laughed, whilst Jake simply smirked, finding his attempts at mimicking those animated shows on television ridiculous and fruitless, yet oddly charming and appropriate of him.

"You sure love board games." Dust chuckled at them while stretching, coming up from the hallway. "How you all doing?" He asked them.

Lucy looked at the Riolu. "We sure as hell do! They're pretty fun, and some are similar to the ones we have back home…" Lucy then glared at Elly and Jake. "Although these two are usually playing chess and don't let anyone have the board for the entire day." She chastized both of her colleagues, Elly blushing, a bit ashamed, whilst Jake simply sat up-right, looking down at the Shinx.

"You say this as if it were a problem, Lucy. And you do not possess enough knowledge of chess to properly play it in the first place… or do you want me to retell your first chess game to Dust, and how you used the Horseas?" Jake asked, giving the Shinx an amused look. She immediately cringed, though she was mostly annoyed.

"Oh will you drop that already you obsessive freakozoid!" The use of that "insult" made Jake tremble in slight anger as the Shinx used an insult she had probably invented in her spare time.

"And what's the problem on playing with different rules? you play how you find it fun and that's it." Dust said to them all.

"There is no problem in using another set of rules as long as the rules themselves make logical sense. Having the Horseas bouncing around the board and taking out your monarchy in two turns is insane." Jake explained, much to Lucy's frustration, who screamed and covered her face, blushing from embarrassment as she started shouting increasingly foul insults at the Sneasel, who wasn't fazed by the Shinx's ceaseless discharge of foul mouthed blabber.

"That's a dirty maw." Dust commented. "If she keeps up she'll know a mouth cleansing from mom." He pointed at the Shinx while saying this, but she was too angry to even bother listening to his advice. "And yeah. that's a bit… too much. It's only fun when your opponent can fight back." The golden Riolu said. "If you are interested we have a chess board somewhere." He added to them in case they wanted to play it.

"We're having fun with this one right now, though maybe Jake and I will have a match later… Oh come on!" Elly screamed in frustration as her die slowly tilted forward from a six and went straight to a two, much to Serge's amusement, who burst out in laughter at Elly's painful rolls, then rolled the die himself… only for his token to land on top of Elly's and sending her back to her yard once more. Elly screamed in agony triggering Serge to laughing like a maniac in response, and all while Lucy was screaming at Jake.

"Well. At least you are not jailed at home." Dust commented to her. "I've played sometimes and through the whole game I had been unable to get a single token out." He remembers his worst game ever.

"I might as well be, because I'm getting so much crap from these three pricks I'm about to start kicking them out from the team!" She screams, Serge laughing even harder, triggering a mean look from the Eevee. "And if you don't drop that you'll be the first! And I'll tell Eric about the Dark and Shade fiasco, how about that?!" She wasn't serious about the former threat, but she meant the later, and Serge knew this, the bird's laughter dying down slowly.

"Ok ok sheesh, it's just a game… No need to get so worked up over it…" Serge tried to turn the situation around to make her look like she was wrong… but he really was in a tight spot when it came to the relationship with his direct boss, so… he decided to not test his luck and shut his beak for once.

"Well in case anyone wonders. I've had enough video games for today and am going to train to the forest for a few hours." He said. "So… see you later!" He ended with a cheery tone, approaching an open window and jumping out of the house by it.

The pokémon playing around the board game waved goodbye at him, and once he was both out of view and out of earshot, they all looked at eachother. "I wonder where he's going… I thought he did his training yesterday?" Lucy asked the rest of the group. The other three just shrugged, not sure about the answer.

"It is refreshing to see him leave the house instead of sitting in the basement and playing those… videogames, I think they were called?" Jake said. He had seen them, and they had interested him quite a lot.

"Well now that he isn't in the house, and probably won't be for a few hours… Want to go see if there's something we can do down there? I want to finish this first though." Serge proposed the change of environment to the rest of the group… although they would only do it after they finished this intense game of Ludo.

* * *

Dust on his part went away, calmly walking through the forest while enjoying the breeze and the ambience of the place. Right behind him however, the ever so curious Emily had sneaked out of the house, slipping right underneath Luna's nose, who had been watching over her for the last few days, and began following the Riolu's moves, once again feeling like a true master of stealth. Dust could hear some pawsteps that he knew wasn't his every now and then, and once he reached a certain point he decided to stop and look around and behind him, trying to see if someone was following him. He managed to see, just barely, a brown and cream furred creature sneaking into the bushes nearby, leaves shaking and flying away. Emily was fairly confident that she hadn't been caught, but she couldn't be further away from the truth. He went to the bushes and stood there. Using his aura senses to identify the aura.

"What are you doing here, Emily?" He asked her once he recognized the young Eevee, letting go of his senses and looking at the bushes, waiting for her to come out. She let out a sharp "Eeep!" as she jumped out of the bushes, on to the main path and gave Dust a flustered look.

"You big meanie! How did you know I was there?! I was sneaking around!" She exclaimed, sort of annoyed.

"Well. First off, I could hear your pawsteps and when I turned around I could see you jumping in the bushes." He explained it to her with the same calmness. "Em, I'm going to train and, as much as I'd love to have a good looking Eevee watching, I would want to be alone doing that." He said. "So. why don't you go back to the house?" He asked her gently.

"Good looking?" She backed away, blushing madly. "Uuuh… well… don't you want me to… uh… cheer you on? Like… "Go Dust… Punch that… air!"?" She didn't really know what he did to train, so she just went for the first thing that came to her mind, and it showed that she knew next to nothing about training regimes.

He chuckled for this. "That's cute. But I'm fine, seriously." He said to her smiling warmly. "Go back before anyone gets worried as to where you are." He said to her.

"Hmph! I wanted to see where you were going… but you're acting like Luna!" She exclaimed, looking away from the Riolu. It was then, however, when an idea started to take shape in her mind, her face turning from one of annoyance to straight up deviousness. "Actually… Luna needs a male in her life, and I think you need a female in yours! You'd be a fantastic pair!" She started mocking the Riolu, shipping him with the fire type.

"You think so?" He asked her. "Well, she really looks sexy and sure as hell she is hot." He said, thinking and placing a paw under his muzzle. "However she made clear that she is not interested in me." He said to her with a shrug to then turn around and start walking away.

"Then I'll tell her that YOU are interested in her! How about that?! Dust and Luna sitting under a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes marriage, then comes the egg, and then comes the…" She trails off as she begins singing the full song.

He stops and turns to look at her. "Well there is something else between the marriage and the egg, but I don't think it is a good idea to talk about it with a kit." He said. "And to top it all off, my eyes fall more on another female to be honest." He confesses. "And no. I'm not telling who." He teases her and starts walking away.

"Hey! First off, I know about mating, so there's that! Second of all, we're both the same age, you dummy! And third…" She runs up to him and tries to put on her best teary eyed face. "Who is it?! Who is it that you like?! Tell meeee!" She pleaded. He looked at her but just smiled seeing her like that and continued walking. Deciding to torture her a bit more if she decides to come along. Besides it would be a good concentration training for him.

"Not telling!" He teases answering her with negatives each time she asks, positioning his arms behind his head while he walked. After some more walking they reached the river and he decides to stop there. Taking a drink from the river and enjoying the fresh water. After this he stood to a side of the river and started his own training with a meditation… With the added difficulty of an Eevee with a perverted curiosity asking him non stop about the female he is interested in. The fact was very funny for him since… well... he knows and he won't tell her.

Emily watched intently as Dust sat down with his legs crossed and eyes closed. She moved up to him, smiling. "Tell meeee…" She whispered into his ear.

"No." He chuckled concentrating, starting to feel the Aura around him, the most noticeable being Emilie's Aura. First of he wanted to commune with the aura and then he could start his warming up.

"What are you doing now? Thinking about that girl? About her shapes? Her sizes? Her curves?" She began asking perverted questions. "You're just as much of a perv as me and Nox, come on don't lie to me! Now tell who it is, I swear I won't say it to them…" She swore the same thing again and again, but even she knew that there was a snowball's chance in hell that she would keep that promise.

"Actually, I don't need to THINK about her frame." Is all his says, standing up. Eyes closed and getting ready while in his eyes, the range of his vision lowered significantly as Dust concentrates to make the shape of another Riolu appear and get ready to start a fight.

Emily looks at him, puzzled. She was starting to get frustrated with him. "Oh come on, it's not even that hard! Just say it, or I'll start saying names and see if you react!"

"Go ahead and try. But please back away." He asks her doing a sudden blocking move with his arms, followed by a few fast swipes.

Emily backs away, puzzled by his movements, and sits at the edge of the clearing. She remains still in that spot, looking at the Riolu's movements, mesmerized by his punches and kicks, hypnotized by his repeated rolls and dodges to avoid the incoming attacks of an invisible enemy. She actually spent a few minutes in complete silence before she remembered what she was supposed to be asking that devilishly handsome Riolu… She shook her head. Where'd that come from?

"Alright, let's see… Luna!" She exclaimed, starting with the obvious.

"Sexy and hot. But no." he says ducking and responding with a backflip kick. His enemy falling on his back but recovering with a backflip of its own and going at him without stop while Dust kept his eyes tightly closed.

"What about Shade? Oh wait, that's your sister… Uhh… Natalie?" Emily asked, trying to pretend that she hadn't proposed Dust's sister as his mate.

"Shade. Curious and I'll admit that she is getting quite a damn body! But yeah she is my sister." He said baking a few steps as he got a punch in the face but still he kept the fight. He couldn't allow himself to slow down and this was making him actually sweat. "Natalie. Intelligent, curious as all kits that young. Still too young to start developing a body to look at but my does she has a nice rear to sneak a look… everytime Dark doesn't kill me with his eyes that is." He shuddered at the memory of the sharp, stabbing look he got from the Zoroark one time he caught the golden Riolu staring at his sister.

"Yeah… Dark is really protective of Natalie… though the other day I caught both Radius and Natalie reading a book together… It makes you wonder, doesn't it?" She asked, giggling. "Anyways… How about Elly? She isn't young and isn't related to you, is she?" Emily innocently asked, yet she knew that what they were doing and suggesting was as perverted as it could get.

"First of. She has already been claimed and marked by Eric. So she is out of my league." He said, dodging a rotatory kick and answering with a hard punch. "However if she wasn't… She is strong, that I've been able to see. Intelligent and a great money manager." He threw a blaze kick to make his opponent back away or get hit and thrown away. "Cool headed when there is need of it and passionate too. She has quite a goddess' body honestly, round rear end, strong legs…" He stopped for a moment as he received a kick to the belly, bending forwards and then jumping, landing on his back as if he had taken a back flip kick himself. "And just the right amount of weight to make her have a cute belly." He finishes, jumping back on his feet. "Or did Eric make her-?" He started to wonder just be interrupted by an uppercut from his aura sight illusion.

"Elly's not that faaat… It's barely noticeable, but it is there… still, she is pretty with those blue eyes… I kind of envy her. And as far I as know, they weren't planning to have a kit anytime soon… So no, that didn't happen. Now… what about Lucy?" She asked, curious to know what he thought about the Shinx, even though she knew she and Zed were together.

"Fierce!" He said throwing a punch. "Fast. Strong. Feisty I dare say." He kept telling while throwing a hit with each thing, hitting his opponent. "She is nicely fit and it gives her a nice frame and quite the muscles on the legs." He then throws an aura sphere at front, this exploding onto the ground and making a little crater on it. "That also gives her quite the good looking body, a pretty nice ass that is hard to resist to slap or grope even a bit and… heh her little rants are so strong sometimes that one can have a little hint of a nice… unmarked flower." He says. "But of course. Not interested in any of the named. Shade is my sister. Radius seems to be interested in Nat even if he doesn't realizes it. Elly is Eric's mate. And Lucy… Well she clearly doesn't smell like she is marked but I've seen her being much more sweet with Zed and that is a red signal." He finished, dodging an imaginary Aura sphere by jumping and then coming down onto his opponent to finish it already.

"Then… what about me?! Emily!" She exclaimed, testing her luck and seeing if the Riolu could come up with something funny.

"Cute. Pervert. Curious. Not very sneaky." He dodges his opponent again, but gets hit by a quick attack. "You look good and are pretty interesting." He adds, throwing a kick. "However, it's too easy to take a look at your secret places." He chuckles, letting slide that he had seen her… lowers, the Eevee gasping in surprise and instantly lowering her tail… but this whole motion was really a joke, since she really never cared about that kind of stuff, although nobody had ever said something like that about her. "On other side... you are pretty and as much as I would like to take a touch to Lucy's behind… yours is not out of my list." He finished, smirking, facing her, eyes closed.

Emily smiles devilishly. "Hehehe… Are you asking me to go out on a date then?" She asked teasingly.

"It's not me the one saying it." He said, smirking back, but that smirk went away of his muzzle as soon as his imaginary enemy landed a punch that threw him to the floor on his side. He wasn't getting hit but he could get his aura to hurt him wherever he wanted all over his body. Emily looked at him, beyond confused now, although she thought at first that he was just messing around. He stood up in a quick motion and rubbed his muzzle where it hurt, moving his mouth a bit, and opened his eyes finally, stopping his training completely. "Ow… That hurt." He mumbles to himself rubbing his snout until the pain went away.

"What are you even doing, Dust? You look so funny just bouncing up and down like that… But anyways, I guess you refuse to tell me who it really is, so… Maybe it's not a female at all… and it could be a male!" She shouted all of a sudden, turning the conversation on the Riolu. "Tell me, what do you think about Eric?" She asked, a huge smile on her face, thinking that she had figured out something. However, he just laughed out loud for her assumption.

"Sorry, cutie. No homo for me." He said still chuckling and trying to compose himself after that affirmation. "However. I'll start with that I know little to nothing about them, excluding Radius and that's because he's my brother." He said. "Eric… Well he is strong yes. Cool headed but not as much as Elly. He seems to get tense at the first sign of even possible threat. On this I'd say he should try and relax a bit. Being on edge about what could happen with a danger only makes you jump at the first signal and he could end up hitting hard someone he doesn't want to." He commented, sitting down to rest a bit.

And just when he said this however, a voice came from the bushes to their right. "I need to calm down about what now?" The very same Riolu they had just been talking about walked out of the bushes, his fur tainted with sweat and panting from exhaustion, but still keeping a serious look, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"Well. I don't know. You haven't said it to me nor had I asked you. But as I said: being tense about it will only make you whack hard someone you don't want to." Dust said, still sitting and only after a few seconds after he answered this was when he realized who he had answered the question… And the golden Riolu stood with a jump, turning to face the other Riolu and backed away with a sheepish smile and paws raised in a "calm down" gesture while he backed away. "Oh! H-hey there! Didn't hear you coming." Dust said, the last thing he wanted was to get into trouble with the other Riolu.

Eric just waved his paw. "Save the excuses Dust… You're kind of right. I am tense most of the time because of the simple fact that we should be doing something else right now in other place… call me a workaholic if you want, but thinking about what could be happening right now as we speak back at our home… it worries me. And that's not the only reason I'm worried either… But I don't want to share my worries with you, so we'll leave it at that. That being said, you're the most capable fighter in this household, so I don't worry too much now that you are here… And before you ask, yes I've heard some of your previous conversation." He said, his face becoming even more serious.

Hearing this, Dust just got more nervous and started to shake. "J-just… h-how much did you hear?" The golden furred one asked, feeling a trunk in his back cutting his escape somewhat and gulping, even Emily was slightly scared.

Eric just sighed and rubbed his nose. "Enough to make me want to slap the teeth out of your mouth… But don't worry, I won't do anything. You're a kid and I know you didn't mean half of it. That being said, you did make extremely accurate descriptions of both Elly's and Lucy's bodies… so you'd better keep those to yourself and whoever you like next time Dust. And be thankful that Nox and Zed aren't here. One would've probably taken all of this seriously, and the other would've taken this to the next level of "wrong"... Just, wrap up your training like nothing ever happened, ok?"

"Eeeehehehehe… Y-yeah… I'll do that and… And of course I didn't mean half of what I said." Dust takes the escape route offered by the other Riolu, he just doesn't want to fight him… however… the idea suddenly sparks into his mind as a pretty nice training for both of them, and his nervousness goes away all of a sudden. "Hey, Eric. What you say about a sparring match as a training?" The golden furred proposed. "It is nice and all to train fighting alone, but… it tends to block how much one can improve as to how much one can keep the act of fighting an imaginary opponent. Even when you can make your aura sense make you see an enemy." The younger Riolu said.

Eric considered it. "Hmmm… that's actually a really good idea, but.. I'm not really in top shape yet, that cold really got to me. However, I still think it's a fantastic idea, and maybe the others would like to fight and hone their battle skills… We need to keep ourselves from getting rusty, and you guys need better training, so it's a win win situation." Eric concluded.

"You are talking just like Dad right now." Dust said, since Hadrim had them sparring a few hours every day as a way of training and getting to know their abilities. "And you should have kept eating the soup until you got fully recovered." The golden accused the blue furred with a teasing smirk. "I know, garlic soup is a mean taste for the tongue, but you refused to get the chicken one."

"First of all, I'm not about to start eating meat… that's just wrong, even if it doesn't come from pokémon, and second of all… Garlic tastes like garbage, for lack of a better term, so I honestly think that the damn soup was doing more harm than good… but since Elly insisted so much on it I kept drinking it until I felt a little better… then I just jumped out of the bed because I seriously can't stand the flavour." He said, gagging from just remembering it.

"Heh. I get why you are running away from your treatment." Dust chuckles a bit. "By the way! Thank you for trusting in me with what you said that I am a more capable fighter. But I want to ask you to not underestimate the rest of my family. They would surprise you." He said.

"Well, everyone knows how to fight, that much I know, but I think our fighting styles may vary a lot from what you may call… conventional, so to say. The same would apply to the enemies we face. Not only that, but as far as I've been able to tell, most of you don't really have real fighting experience, just basic training and what you've managed to get from spars. But this can all be proved during those sparring sessions, so I'll stay vigilant when facing someone from your family, don't worry. I don't completely underestimate you, but for our standards… you're inexperienced." Eric explained himself as best he could, but he knew that his explanations was probably way too ambiguous.

"Well. I get that Explorers have a tougher fighting life. After all, the outlaws go for your heads." Dust said. "So your fights are for both do your job and keep your skin." He admits, knowing that it is not the same fighting in a sport, that fighting for survival. "We all know that if you wanted to mix sparring matches with us we'll have to keep an eye on what you do."

"Yes… Well, I think I should get going now. Zed and Nox are probably back home or waiting for me in the trail. Don't get lost in the woods!" He said as he turned around and waved goodbye.

"Erm. Eric, just one thing." Dust asked, the other fighting type turned to look at him.. "Could you take her back to the household? She doesn't want to go back on her own and I could do some more training." He practically BEGGED to the other Riolu. Emily was about to complain, but realized that she probably didn't have a say in the matter and nodded sadly.

"Yes, I'll take care of her. C'mon, let's go back." He tells the Eevee, who said goodbye to Dust and walked away with Eric, both of them speaking in a low voice so Dust doesn't hear them. "Hope I didn't sound too strict… but he's got a pretty perverted mind… As all pokémon their age would, honestly… What do you think, what did I sound like?" The Riolu began questioning the Eevee.

"Well… if you want me to be honest, Mr. Eric… You sounded as if you were his dad." Her words made the blue Riolu's eyes go wide open, before he chuckled.

"Alright, first of all, don't call me mister, and second of all… Yeah, Elly was right, I must be insufferable lately if I'm talking to Dust as if I was his father… I mean, I don't look old enough to pass as him, right?" The fighting type asked, a little worried.

"Well… That's a tricky question… I'd say you would pass for a responsible brother that is taking care of his younger brother because both of their parents were gone… so yeah, kinda old." She answered, to the which Eric laughed, Emily laughing as well as they chatted about that side of the Riolu.

* * *

Dust came back to the household at dinner time, just as he said. He had a hot bath that he used to relax, had some dinner himself. Today was Zed's turn of cooking since he and Luca decided to take turns on it. After this he went down to the basement, his room, and let himself fall flat on the couch, falling asleep in a moment… missing completely that a few things down there were out of place… as if someone had been sticking their nose around. One of those things being a box of Pokémon magazines that was sticking out of its hiding place behind the bookshelf at the wall of his personal gaming room.

* * *

"You sure you want to do it like that?" Hadrim asked Eric about his proposal of mixed sparring matches. The Espeon sitting down in front of the Fighting type and looking at him with a serious look.

Eric nodded. "Yeah, I think it's a good idea to hone out your battle skills and make sure that we are ready for anything. Also, it could be a good way to kill time." Eric explained his reasoning, whilst Elly just glared at him and rolled her eyes.

"He's just really bored, and this is the worst possible solution to it. Eric, I've told you time and time again that there's no reason to get so worked up about all of this… But since you're probably not even going to listen to me just do what you want. If you think it's a good idea then go for it, but I'm not going to participate in these spars, and neither are you Eric." Elly expressed her dislike for the idea, which annoyed Eric.

"Elly, we need to be ready in case anything happens. If you don't want to participate, then don't, but I'm not the only one who's ok with this idea. The others want to participate, and as far as I know Dust, Radius and Luca want to give it a shot." Eric informed his mate of the other pokemon's decisions, but her own didn't vary: She refused to fight, at least for the time being.

Hadrim stood thinking for a moment. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be in some kind of trance that would be familiar for certain Eevee if she wasn't so… upset with her mate. Meanwhile, the pokémon that the blue Riolu named were warming up.

"You know ALL of us must be ready for whatever happens, right?" Luca asked to whomever listened to her from the other group while she stretched her legs to both sides, managing to sit down while keeping her legs in a straight line, her tone being normal, as if the pose wasn't a bother at all. She wasn't the only one, Dust was doing the same to get his flexibility in check, his face a mask of concentration.

"Yeah, and we're going to do just that, but I think it's ridiculous to get this worked up over all of this, and Eric isn't going to fight because he's still not ok… So there's that." Elly answered the Lucario's reminder, a little annoyed.

"Well. I'm on this because one of you freaked out about some danger that clearly has you on edge so we better be ready for whatever. And I'd say one of you still doesn't know how to fight." Luca pointed why she was into this, she knew they were strong and this would help them all greatly. Emily looked at the Lucario, knowing that she was talking about her. Elly simply groaned and walked away, regretting ever mentioning something that ridiculous. Whatever had been following them had probably lost it's trail weeks ago.

"Well… I don't know how to fight, but… I don't really want to… I'll do so if I have to, but… I don't want to fight, sorry." Emily shyly answered the Lucario's question.

Luca nodded and smiled warmly at her. " It is your choice to take." She said to the little one, leaving the topic at that.

The members of Team Star were getting ready for the fighting as well. Zed was trying to think of what he could turn into to get an advantage in battle, whilst Lucy couldn't keep herself in one spot and kept zipping back and forth, excited to finally square off against someone that wasn't a fellow companion. Maybe she would get the chance to get revenge on Dark for scaring Zed… Right next to her, Jake was sitting on a chair and reading a book, having done all of his warm up before, and contrasting both all of them, Serge was just lying on the couch with his eyes closed, trying to get a nap, lazy as always.

Nox was extremely anxious, his eyes darting back and forth between both Dust and Emily, staying on Emily's figure far longer than on Dust's. He was getting scared about the fact she kept hanging out with him, and feared that if he didn't do anything she'd end up falling for the Riolu… and the mere thought of that made his blood boil. Maybe for the rest of the members this was just a friendly spar… but for him it was more than that.

"Ok, then." Hadrim suddenly said to Eric and Elly, opening his eyes. "But we won't sparr here." He adds, sure that they know why. "I got permission to use training grounds. If you will all follow me." He said to them and started to walk. Coming out of the house, followed by all of them and went into the forest, Luca waiting for everyone to come out before closing the door and doing the same.

They walked through the forest until they came across a huge field without grass nor flowers and the trees being fairly away from the barren area. Some destroyed trees laying here and there, burnt, cut, or whatever from the use given to this area. "We are on the pack's training grounds. We can do whatever we want here but if someone comes we give them space. Do not interfere with their training and they won't do so with ours." Hadrim said to them all.

Eric looked around the area. It was a wide and open area, with a lot of room to move around and with no wildlife or vegetation to get in the way, so in that regard it was similar to the plains, albeit there was no inclination in this case, which took elevation out of the equation for some of the fighter's tactics. Either way, he knew they would manage just fine. The others were surveying the area, drawing their own conclusions, and some even began to plan out their strategy… or find the best spot to take a nap after the event.

Serge pointed at a mat of grass to their right. "Dibs on that one." He simply said with a smile, confusing everyone who didn't know how lazy he could sometimes be. Eric sighed, then looked at the Kaiser family.

"Well.. who's going to be first?" He asked both his team members and the Kaiser, waiting for someone to step forward. To their surprise, Zed was the first one to step into the middle of the field, which triggered a vocal response from his friends.

"GO ZED! YOU CAN DO IT!" Lucy's scream resonated above the rest of their friends', which made Zed blush and nod, specially once he heard laughter from his group, which included his mate's.

"Then, Zed. As you decided to volunteer for the first match. You get to pick your opponent." Hadrim said to the Zorua calmly.

The Zorua thought about it for a while, his eyes hovering over all of the Kaiser household members. He immediately discarded his own friends, since he had already fought them all multiple times, so he evaluated the others to see if there was anyone who caught his attention… and his eyes stopped on the tall Zoroark, standing behind the rest, as if he wanted to remain out of view. Zed lifted his paw and pointed at the fellow dark type. "I want to see what you can do, Dark." The Zorua challenged his evolution, confident in himself, surprising everyone, specially Lucy.

Dark was surprised by this too. But the Zoroark smiled and got up front. He wasn't about to let down a challenge. Stepping forwards, Dark stretched once on the battleground and faced Zed afterwards. "You're on, Zed. I hope I do not disappoint you." The Zoroark said respectfully and got into a stance of fight or flee he had grown used to take. And his eyes fell on the Shiny Zorua. Fixated on him as the bipedal Dark type waited and thought about what to do. Using illusions would be the normal work out but this sparring was for fighting skills not fooling ones, so Dark won't hide himself in his ability, he might hide the moves he needs more time to prepare tho, but he won't fool the Zorua into attacking an illusory Zoroark… unless the battle called for it. But the Zoroark had other hidden tricks to start with.

"Ready?" Hadrim called to the two combatants. Dark nodded, his eyes still on Zed. The Espeon let Eric tell the rules and call the start of the fight. Zed nodded as well, and the older Riolu stepped forward and cleared his throat, which was still not in top shape.

"This spar-" He began coughing as he forced his throat to talk out loud so that everyone heard him, Elly taking a few steps towards him, worried. He waved his paw at her, telling her that it was alright. "This sparring will have the follow… following rules: The matches will be determined by a point system. To earn a point, a contestant must wound or hit their opponent. The first contestant to get two points wins the match. They will be short rounds to ensure that we fight against as many opponents as possible, understood?" He explained the reasoning behind this system, hoping that the others were alright with this idea. Everyone there nodded.

"Alright, one last thing: Attacking weak points or sensitive spots, like the eyes, the neck and other places is forbidden. However, pinning down a foe and threatening to strike these spots IS, and is considered a point favour of the attacker. Find ways to avoid your opponent's attacks and strike when they're defenseless, go all out and crush them before they can move, or keep your head cool and wait for a chance to pin them. Any of these strategies, and many more, are valid." The Riolu's voice was getting weaker by the second, and he ended up having another coughing fit, signaling at the Espeon that he was done with the explanations.

The Espeon looked at him for a moment. to then look at the two ready to fight. Zed crouched down, tensing up and ready for a fight, deciding on an opening move. Dark got ready himself, not taking his eyes away from his opponent. "Begin!" Hadrim barked with a loud voice. Zed took the initiative and charged forward as fast as he could, his claws giving off a faint purplish glow, jumping up to reach the Zoroark's eyes level and lashed out with both of his claws. Dark had little time to react, Zed was fast for him, but he had enough time to block the attack with his own version of the move, following by jumping away from him, the Zorua using the force from Dark's block to jump back as well, with the Zoroark searching space while his mind started to go wild. While backing up, Dark summoned a black sphere in one of his paws, the which got surrounded by rings. The move formed in an instant and he launched it at Zed. A beam of rings flying towards the smaller fox, while the Zoroark decided to keep thinking. ' _Something like this won't be enough to get to him._ ' He thought.

Zed began jumping to the side, running as the rings blew up behind him, then jumped into the air and changed into another form, his body being surrounded in a purplish light as he transformed into a Pidgey and took off at high speeds, not lifting himself too far off the ground and then swooping back in, stopping his flapping to dive bomb down into the Zoroark, getting ready to flap his wings again and fly off in case he missed.

"Wait! He's flying!?" Radius barked, getting ahead of the others as everyone went wide eyed with the exception of Hadrim, who tried to keep a stone face and Dark, who actually had no time to react to to surprises.

Serge recognized the motion, feeling proud that the Zorua was trying to replicate one of his aerial moves, but also cringing, knowing that if he messed it up he was going to get a beakful of dirt. Dark had two options here and the two required waiting. He went with one that he needed. Hiding his left arm in an illusion of nothing, just his arm he started concentrating, attempting to form a bone of Aura. Dust felt the concentration but said nothing, same with Luca. The Zoroark had just the right time to finish forming it before dropping the illusion, giving Zed just a tiny instant to see it and getting ready to strike.

However, Zed had some experience with Zoroarks and their illusions, being a Zorua himself, and while he couldn't exactly see what he was doing, he knew he was doing something. The look in his eyes and the way he was waiting for him… he'd have to be stupid not to know the bigger Dark type was preparing something. However, it didn't really vary anything. When he was close enough, he quickly transformed into another pokémon, a Cranidos, which dived headfirst into the Zoroark's chest, making his counter turn into an attempt at blocking the other's hit, yet it made the Zoroark fall on his back, his aura bone broken in two, the Zorua crashing right through it and straight into the taller Dark type's chest, knocking the wind out of him and knocking him down to the ground. Zed also crashed into the dirt violently, but thanks to Cranidos' extremely resistant head, he didn't receive much damage other than a mean headache.

Eric rose his arm and shouted, both of the fighters looking at him. His paw pointed at Zed. "Point to Zed! Neil to one!" He looked at Hadrim, the other referee of the match, for a confirmation on this. The Espeon nodded to him, and some of the members from Team Star started cheering, specially Lucy, who was going nuts as she thought her mate was going to win the match against the pokémon that had initially scared him so much. The Riolu kept his paw risen, then lowered it quickly. "Start!" The match resumed as he shouted.

The hit had been a hard one and Dark needed a few seconds to regain his breath. But he stood up after this. Not willing to lose without proper fight. The Zoroark immediately decided to go for something else. He couldn't outspeed Zed so he'll need to make the little shapeshifter come up close and surprise him somehow. His mind racing, plotting non stop on ways to hit the Zorua, his eyes fixed on him. His look serious and determined. It was not the time for words. Not caring about hiding it, the Zoroark extended an arm and formed another aura bone on it. The purplish bone formed slowly but steadily. Dark concentrating as much as he could while keeping his eyes on Zed. When the bone was formed, the Zoroark, instead of dashing towards Zed with it, molded the shape of it, until the bone became something similar to a bow, complete with string and all.

The Zorua reverted to his original form, breathing heavily. Changing forms tired him out, but those two had been small pokémon, so he had energy to spare for the time being. He carefully watched as Dark created another aura bone, trying to think of another strategy, knowing that the last one wouldn't work twice. However, once he saw that the bone was taking it's time to change, he didn't waste the chance and moved in again. That initial speed was gone, so he wasn't as fast as the first time around, yet he already had an idea.

It was when the bone was transformed that the Zoroark took the string in his other paw, concentrating more of his Aura and, as he pulled, a little sphere of aura formed and then reshaped into an arrow. Dark aimed at the ground in front of Zed while pulling and shot the arrow. For the Zoroark felt like he took forever to prepare this attack, but it only took him a second to have the Aura sphere turned into an arrow and flying towards Zed's paws. He wasn't aiming to hit, of course, that would be too dangerous, but if this went well it would give the Zoroark the close up he needed.

Zed saw the projectile being prepared, slowed down, and transformed into something as the projectile blew up in front of him. The cloud of smoke surrounded him, right before an Ekans jumped out at Dark. The Zoroark held up the aura bow to block the snake's jaws from reaching him completely, the Zorua's jaw closing around the weapon, sending signals of pain to his brain, as it felt as if he had bitten down on steel. After this Dark acted quickly, holding Zed by the tail, letting go of the bow to hold him for good, ending by smashing Zed on the floor and throwing him at safe distance. Hadrim looked at Eric. "Does it count?" He asked for an agreement before calling it a point.

Eric winced as Zed thrashed on the floor before stopping, reverting to his form and panting, his headache had gotten a lot worse now. Lucy was now livid with Dark, screaming that he was being too rough, whilst the others found it normal, as it wasn't something that the Zorua didn't have to withstand before. "It's a point, yes." The Riolu answered, shouting again to stop the match.

"Point to Dark! One to one! Next one to score wins the match!" He announced, throwing his arm down and restarting the match again. Zed struggled to get up, shaking his head and focusing again.

"Can you keep going?" Dark found himself asking, maybe not the smartest idea but he didn't want to have Zed fainting or he'll have to deal with a shocking consequence. On other paw he rather end the match in a draw one to one than that. Zed looked at him and nodded, struggling to smile. He wasn't exactly durable when it came to fighting, but he could take a couple of those before falling unconscious… but this headache was killing him. Dark nodded to this and got ready once again, thinking on how to end this quickly so they could both rest. After all, he too was starting to get tired for the match. The Aura bone had taken a lot of concentration and this had been tiring, let alone changing its shape, and the same with the aura sphere to keep it stable and don't blow up on him. His mind was tiring quickly and he was panting slightly. The Zoroark started again with a Dark Pulse. The bean of black rings flying towards the Zorua a tad faster than before and it seemed slightly more powerful than the first.

The shiny pokémon tried the same strategy from last time, running away from the rings and transforming into a Pidgey again, taking flight, getting back into the fight and blocking out the pain he felt inside of his cranium. The beam let a slightly bigger crater than the first one when it collided on the floor while Dark dismissed the move, looking at Zed flying above and starting to throw black balls of energy towards the pidgey, hoping they were strong enough to do something other than… nothing.

Zed flew around the spheres as quickly as he could, the fire rate being lower than Eric's when they trained, so he didn't have much trouble when it came to dodging them, closing in little by little on the Zoroark, preparing to do something unexpected. Dark kept with his Shadow balls, forming then faster with the little practice he was getting and thus firing faster each time until he just couldn't fire them faster. Seeing the transformed Zorua approaching made another idea pop up in his mind, smiling inwards, but for now he kept with the balls until Zed was close enough.

Zed swooped to the left and to the right until he was right above Dark, then dived straight down in front of him, opening his wings as he flew down to swing around in midair really quickly, curving his trajectory and intending to transform into a Riolu that was trying to kick the Zoroark, although the transformation took longer than usual because of his headache. Dark stopped firing spheres and prepared watching Zed transform again and try to kick him, those few seconds that the Zorua took to transform being his downfall. The Zoroark smirked now and grabbed the transformed Zed by the same leg he tried to kick him to then look at him, the Zorua finding himself hanging upside down from his leg, dizzy from transforming so frequently.

The fur in both of Dark's arms was quick to stand on end as the probably familiar crackling of electricity sounded as sparks danced around them. "Gotcha!" Was the only thing Dark said before making his Hidden power shock Zed for a second before stopping and letting go of him, his fur was standing up due to the static and some sparks danced around his body, Zed feeling the electricity flowing through him, paralyzed. He was used to receive shocks of electricity, his mate being a Shinx and all, but they still hurt. However, Dark had made sure to not knock him out, so it was a relatively weak jolt of electricity.

Zed went back into being a Zorua, falling to the ground panting heavily, turned into a spiky ball of black fur, getting back on his feet, though too weak and falling on his rear, sitting on the ground, slowly coming to his senses. Lucy looked at Eric, the Riolu's face being one of surprise and also pride. The Zorua had put up quite a good fight despite being an extremely poor head to head fighter. However, Lucy was slightly angry that Zed had been beaten by Dark, but was extremely proud for the same reasons that Eric was, even more so than the Riolu. However, the rest were quite surprised to see Dark using something like electricity, which didn't relate at all to his typing.

Hadrim again looked at Eric for an agreement over this, with the simple question of "Point?" directed to the blue Riolu. The fighting type simply answered with a nod, letting the Espeon call the end of the match. The Riolu was now thinking about the strange power that Dark has showcased, surprised to see that the inhabitants of this world had some tricks of their own. Once Hadrim got his answer he declared. "The point and the match go to Dark." The Espeon boomed with his voice for the fighters to hear him, being quite away.

Hearing this, Dark knelt down to Zed. "Hey. You fought great." The Zoroark praised his shiny opponent, extending a paw for a deportive pawshake. Zed took his time to get his paw up and meet Dark's, shaking paws with him.

"You were also pretty good… But I don't think I stood a chance against you on my own. I'm not that much of a good fighter… Still I…" He was interrupted by a familiar Shinx that pounced him to the ground, screaming and asking if he was alright, struggling to get his words out through her licking and kissing. "Lucy, Lucy, calm down I'm ok!" He shouted over her voice, trying to push her away to get some space.

"Oh Arceus I was so worried after that hit you got earlier… Dark is such a brute! Still, you fought so well, I'm so proud of you!" She squealed and hugged Zed tightly, showing her love for him. The Zorua tried to get her to release him, but it was futile. If she kept hugging like that she'd end up hurting him way more than Dark had.

Dark chuckled. "Am I a brute?" He asked her. "I think I would be one if I had smashed him three times on the floor." He joked a bit. She might not take it well, but just maybe it would make her release a bit her mate, who seems to be trying to get a bit loose.

Lucy let go of Zed and got up on her paws, looking up at the Zoroark. "You would be better off shutting the hell up!" She screamed, then went back to hugging Zed, swearing to avenge Zed's defeat at the hands of the Zoroark whenever she got the chance. Dark just chuckled for her reaction before getting up and going back to the group. After managing to convince Lucy to let up on her treatment, the pair manage to leave the plain and sit with their friends, where the Zorua is showered with praise from his teammates for having been able to withstand a battle with the taller dark type.

The Zoroark got praised as well for his fighting, and even some advice from Luca and Dust about the Bone rush. Aside from getting some surprised comments for what he did with the shapes. The Zoroark blushed a bit and asked them to stop, feeling himself getting red for all the words he was getting from them, but not much. After everyone calmed down and settled, Eric and Hadrim stepped in the middle again and waited for someone to step forward to start the next match. Luca was pumped after witnessing the first match and stepped forward into the field. And she got the same words as Zed had of choosing an opponent.

"Well. I'll let them volunteer." She simply answered to her mate with a smile, and he looked at Eric again for an agreement. The moment that the Riolu nodded, Jake stepped forward from behind the group, walking towards the middle of the field. All of his companions looked at him, sure that they were about to witness quite a battle.

"I volunteer." The ice type simply stated, both of his arms at his sides, his eyes fixated on the Lucario, who nodded and went up to him. She stood a nice distance away from him and her eyes fixated on him, this time she won't take her eyes away from him.

"Then it's settled. You both ready?" Hadrim asked them, Luca nodding and immediately getting into a fighting stance. Her stance differed from Dark's that she was ready to dash and forwards and fight. This stance basically gave away her starting tactic to the Sneasel, who simply remained where he was, using his powers in a way that couldn't be seen.

He looked at Hadrim. "Affirmative." He simply said, the air around him getting colder and colder.

"Then. Begin!" Hadrim boomed once again. Luca didn't waste time and started. However, instead of running, she literally jumped from side to side while approaching the Sneasel slowly, trying to pressure him somehow. It didn't work, and instead Jake just remained in his spot, large icicles forming at his sides, four spikes of ice surrounding him. He waited for Luca to jump once more, and immediately shot his arm forward, a spike flying at the spot the Lucario was headed, and he predicted her next move, shooting an icicle to the spot to the left of where she was headed, whilst he ran at the spot to the right, the two remaining icicles behind him.

Luca saw the icicle going towards her landing spot, her feet suddenly caught on fire with a blaze kick and she lowered one to the ground to vary a bit her jump. Kicking the icicle in two. She then looked at the Ice type and this time she was the one to stand in the defensive side of this, the fire in her feet dismissed after her attack. Thinking quickly, she raised her fists and got ready, her face serious as the spikes on them took on a more metallic glow, reflecting the sun shining on them all.

Jake didn't move in to attack, opting to wait for Luca to get on the offensive, but he had a trick up his sleeve. Jake manipulated the still intact ice spike that had landed where the Lucario had been headed before, and then threw it towards her from behind. The ice spike was perfectly aimed to merely grace her fur if she didn't move, which would count as a point in his favour. And if she did move to avoid it, he would simply move in whilst she was distracted to hit her and gain a point. She had her bullet punch ready, the skin on her paws hardened like steel but she failed to hear any noise and it was when the icicle cut her when she realized that he had only two icicles with him. "Shit." She muttered, covering the scratch.

"The point goes for Jake." Hadrim boomed once he got the agreement with Eric as always. "Continue." He called afterwards. Luca looked at the ice type.

"I think he could try and seek maybe a bit less of injury." Radius mussed growling slightly. Shade also looking at the Ice-type wanting to rip his fur off of him for that. Natalie had her claws digging the ground.

"He doesn't need to be that risky to get points." She said. "I don't doubt he can control his ice but there is always the possibility that he stabs her if she tries to dodge too late." She said, ending greeting her fangs with a snarl on her face. Luna was serious and silent but a bit of black smoke came out of her nose every time she breathed out while Dark had a hard expression. Hadirm on his part wanted to shred those icicles to pieces with a passion! But he had to remain impartial on this.

Meanwhile, the members of Team Star had mixed opinions about Jake's rather risky strategy, but they all agreed that it was Jake… well, being Jake. He had done this hundreds of times whilst they were training, and not once had he severely hurt someone with one of those, so they weren't worried in the slightest, yet could understand why the crowd to their lefts were worried. Jake's body was small and nimble, but he was frail and weak, and lacked the physical strength to attack like his companions, so his only possibility of winning was to use those dangerous strategies.

Jake had also noticed the many fierce looks he was getting from them, and decided to change strategies. He sighed out loud. "Fine… I shall not use my icicles for attacking anymore." He announced out loud, both of the remaining ice spikes floating behind him, but pointing down at the ground, "Now… come!" He taunted the Lucario, motioning her to come over, as he wasn't intending to do so.

"Hey. Don't go easy on me now!" Luca said to him, not minding his way of fighting, her scratch having a bit of frost around it and she was ready to fight again. This time, instead of going for a close combat, she decided to go start with a bit of range. She was quick, compared to Dark, in creating an Aura sphere and throwing it at the Sneasel, confident that he'll dodge it or something. Then she made use of extreme speed to get near and try and land a quick strike with her bullet punch.

Jake however, didn't move, kept calm, and carried out his plan. He first waited for Luca to get close, same with the sphere, then he used one of his icicles to block the sphere, which blew up into tons of pieces of ice, as well as creating a veil of smoke with the which to confused the Lucario. He rushed into the smoke, the other icicle right behind him, and moved towards Luca, who saw two shapes going into the smoke, one in front of the other, the first one forcefully having to be Jake. The Lucario threw herself into the cloud of dust, her eyes closed and her aura sight clear, she searched for the Sneasel and went for him, again trying to land the hit.

What her aura vision failed to see, however, was the inanimate flying icicle that the Sneasel was using to shield himself. Once the blow hit, the ice fractured into pieces, which gave Jake the time he needed to quickly run to the side and crouch, performing a sweeping kick with all of his strength, his leg encased in ice. This kick hit both of Luca's feet, who was off balance from the punch she had thrown, fell on her back, and without skipping a beat, the Sneasel jumped on her chest, pinning down that part of her. She tried to land a hit on him with this, covering both her upper paws in ice and creating two ice edges on them that she went to threaten to cut his neck with a criss cross cut. However, he was faster at pointing his hand at her neck… only for his claws to extend and grace her skin. A single inch more and they would've pierced her skin. Her own attack was only half placed, yet she didn't move one bit as the cloud of dust dissipated, leaving them in clear view, one being more threatened than the other.

"What do you think? I'd say Luca is in more danger." Hadrim said, trying to calm his voice, talking to Eric. The Riolu was astonished, as always, Jake delivered when it came to quick victories.

"I think so… Yes." Eric stopped the match by yelling. "Point and match to Jake, neil to two." As soon as he said these words, the Sneasel got off of her, his claws disappearing into his arm, and Luca allowed her ice blades to melt and sit up.

"Great battle Jake, you directly overpowered me." She praised him with a smile and extended a paw to shake his, just as Dark had done with Zed. Jake looked at her paw, curious at first, but then remembered the motion after having seen it previously, and mimicking it, he extended his hand and grabbed the Lucario's paw, shaking it vigorously.

"It was a great battle, yes, and do not blame yourself for having lost like this, Luca. My experience in battle is vastly superiors to yours, and you sadly fell into my strategy the moment you let my taunts influence your behaviour. If I must make a recommendation, it's this, to avoid your feelings influence your actions… and this applies to a lot of occasions." He said, tapping his head, referencing their little incident from a few days ago.

She blushed for this comment and gripped his paw a bit more while smiling tensely. "Keep it up and I'll make sure the next one will make you be twice your size." She said in a low whisper to him but let it slide this time without further actions. He winced at Luca's vice grip, but managed to retain a straight face through the brief pain, nodding in response. "I'll take your advice to an extent." She said, as if he hadn't mentioned anything about that moment. "But I want you to consider a question you might see yourself with at some point: "What are you willing to do for that which is very valuable to you?" Don't try to find the answer now, it is a tough one unless you are in a very compromised situation." She exposed the question for him and advised him to let it aside in his head.

After this, she stood up and started to walk towards the group. Everyone immediately went to check on her. "I'm okay. It was just some scratches." She reassured them, but she got to pick up her Eevee kits and let Dust and Hadrim to take a look at her scratches, the Espeon even took a look at her neck and sighed in relief before going back to his referee behaviour.

Jake did the same, but kept both the question Luca had asked him and the answer to himself, and headed back to his companions. Eric had a serious look on his face, and Jake knew exactly why. "Your fears were unfounded. She seems capable of fighting, but she did not stand a chance against me." Jake simply answered before Eric asked a question.

"Yes, but you didn't have to go all out. You had everyone worried when you threw that icicle, a little more and…" The Riolu was interrupted by a glare from the Sneasel.

"Our enemy will not have mercy. They lack real combat experience, and so far our fight has been the closest to one. What is the point of a spar if both combatants do not test their capabilities to their fullest?" Jake inquired. The Riolu was unable to find an answer for the ice type's question at the moment, and the Sneasel simply walked away, returning to the back of the group and sitting on the grass, his eyes fixated on the battlefield.

Eric sighed and looked at Hadrim. "Sorry for that…" He looked away and coughed. "I'll have a talk with him later about behaving like this with you… But I assure you that Luca was never in any real danger. He's… something else when it comes to calculating moves." The Riolu explained the Sneasel's impressive skills, but he knew that his words wouldn't bring much comfort to the Espeon.

Had just sighed. "Believe it or not, Eric… I had some idea of what to expect. It's just hard not to worry." The psychic-type said, sighing a bit after those words.

"Well… just don't keep it to him. Just… imagine what it feels like to spar with him every so often… It gets the blood flowing, that I can tell you…" He let out a weak chuckle, trying to improve the mood and break the awkwardness that the battle had left between them.

"Don't worry. It was nothing in the end, right?" The Espeon asked the fighting type with a calm look. To then face the groups. "Okay, then. We have had two matches so far. Who's up next?" He asked them.

There was a brief moment of silence, before Lucy started to walk forward to fight, but before she could do that Nox stormed past her, bumping into her and almost knocking her down. The Shinx looked at him, at first confused, then furious. "Hey, there's nicer ways to say 'I'm next', you jackass!" She shouted, but Nox paid no mind to her words. His mind was made: He wanted to fight, and he knew exactly who he was going to pick as his opponent.

As soon as he stopped in the middle of the field, he looked at Hadrim expectantly, doubting between waiting for the Espeon to tell him to pick an opponent or doing it before he opened his mouth.

"To the volunteer goes the choice." Is all the Espeon says for him to pick an opponent, as all the time during this matches, calmly, however, this time his eyes remained a bit on the Houndour for a bit longer before he looked back at the group. Nox immediately rose his paw and pointed at Dust, his eyes fixated on the Riolu. Without making his challenger wait. Dust jumped forwards to his side, facing towards the referees for a moment to then start to walk into their battleground. He wasn't the only one that had noticed the Houndour's strange behaviour, as Eric returned the gaze and then looked at the fire type. Something was wrong in this picture.

"Good luck." He offered the Houndour beforehand, being the only one to say something before a match, the other two being too concentrated on their opponents, but the Riolu was confident… even if he felt that something was off, but he dismissed the thought as maybe a bit of paranoia.

"Yeah… likewise." The Houndour's words felt sharp, as if he meant another thing entirely with them, not just wishing luck for his opponent to win the fight… but something else that not even he had realized. With no more words, both combatants went to their positions. Dust hopping a bit and doing some kicks and punches to warm up a bit, whilst Nox simply crouched down and growled, embers coming off of his claws and the corners of his maw.

"Ready?" Came the booming call of Hadrim. Dust nodded with a great smile, whilst Nox just snarled and nodded. "Then…"

 **(At this point search and play the song: "The Brink of Death - Chrono Cross" Credit to it's composers)**

"Start!" Eric shouted, signaling the beginning of the third, and unknowingly to them all, final match of the day. Without leaving Dust a second to breathe, Nox blasted a ball of fire straight at his opponent, the incandescent flames traveling towards the Riolu at high velocities, the Houndour running to the side to try and flank the Riolu, preparing for him to dodge the projectile. Seeing the fireball coming at him, Dust started to jump backwards to get some space between him and the projectile, trying to also keep an eye on the fire and dark type. Once he thought the distance was enough. Dust did a backflip, landing and immediately digging a hole as fast as a mole, hiding into it and trying to sneak under the Houndour, using his Aura sight to locate his opponent, then he waited the precise moment to blast out of the ground and try and land a hit on him.

Nox saw the fireball burst into flames, but didn't see the Riolu burrowing underground. He was no fool, however, and felt the vibration of the earth underneath him, reactively jumping away as Dust burst out of the ground. He relied on pure reflexes to spit out a surge of fire at the Riolu to try and get him out of the ground, opting to try and intimidate him first. Dust growled a bit seeing this, not being able to get away from the fire in a jump and not having enough time to launch his counter. Once he landed, his fur was slightly burned, patting away at the spot to avoid it burning of his fur completely. This time, Hadrim didn't say anything for a moment, his eyes on the Houndour. There wasn't need to an agreement since it was clear there was a hit.

Eric rose his paws and announced the point in favour of Nox, resuming the match immediately afterwards. Both Nox and Dust backed away from eachother to get some distance, and Nox, since he was ahead and just one point from showing Emily just how much stronger he was than this Riolu, began to grow impatient. He looked at the aforementioned Eevee, who was cheering… Dust. She wasn't doing it because she prefered the Riolu over the Houndour however, but merely because the fighting type was at a disadvantage and she thought that he could use some cheering.

"Go Dust go! Go Dust go!" She kept singing and moving back and forth, trying to get someone else to sing with her which she managed, triggering Natalie's little kit mind to do the same, Shade and Luna following a bit after. This immensely hurt the Houndour's pride, who felt insulted, ignoring Serge's cheering completely, his mind too focused on what he thought was important: Trying to get the attention of that one Eevee that had been driving him crazy for the last couple weeks.

The Riolu with the brazalet got into position to go back at the match, his face serious this time, his smile gone. With a paw, he beckoned his quadruped opponent with a "come here" gesture, while his whole body was unmoving, even his breath wasn't noticeable… because he was holding his lungs empty at the moment, taking a breath every few seconds. The cheers from the group reached his ears but he tried to tune them out, waiting for the Houndour's next move.

All of these factors, with the added taunting from the Riolu in front of him, made him snap, rushing towards Dust whilst getting another fireball ready. Once he was in front of him, he fired the fireball right in front of him, the fire blowing up underneath him, serving as a veil to make him invisible whilst jumping towards Dust and trying to slash him with his claw. Seeing him coming, Dust started to suck in air, filling up his lungs but, even then he forced himself to get even more. Arching his back while his belly started to slightly expand as he waited for the Houndour to get near. The trick with the cloud of fire was good, if only it worked against his aura sight. Once the Houndour was at point blank, Dust put both paws in his belly and pushed as he bent forwards, blowing a stream of water at his face with enough pressure to push him back a bit. But his move was short lived, both because Dust couldn't hold his breath for too long and because his reserves for this action weren't as big as a water type. Once he stopped, he ended panting to catch his breath a bit while still drooling a bit of water out of the corners of his mouth. Nox was caught off guard, baffled by the sudden water attack, which didn't hurt much, but it made his entire face feel extremely cold. The worst part of all, however, was that some water had made it's way down his throat. He tried coughing out some fire, but only smoke came out, the Houndour being temporarily robbed of his ability to create fire with his maw.

"Well… Would you see that?" Dark commented "Now I get why you called him 'water warrior'." The Zoroark said to Luca, who just giggled at the Zoroark.

"That was a surprise, even for us." Natalie commented as well. None of the new additions to the family had seen the shiny Riolu's Hidden Power since he came back. While they were chatting about this, Dust jumped at the fire type and backflip kicked him right under the jaw, this way earning a point, Nox flying away and rolling on the ground, shaking his head and recomposing himself.

 **(Stop the music)**

"What the f… You cheated, you bastard!" He got up and looked at Dust, extremely angry. "That can't count as a point!" The fire type felt like he had been tricked. It wasn't normal for a fighting type to be able to use water like that. However, the decision had been made, and Eric and Hadrim called the point in Dust's favour, making them even.

"Then Dark's shock to Zed wouldn't count as it would be unfair that Zed lost then." The Riolu reasoned calmly. "And I didn't hear you calling Dark a cheater then." Nox gritted his teeth. The jackal was slowly starting to piss him off on a personal level.

"Because he isn't a damn mate thief, you jackass! Why don't you stick with someone from your own world?!" He shouted, everyone looking at him with wide eyes, the Houndour finally spilling the beans, even surprising Emily, who stopped her cheering and looked at Nox, finally learning the truth.

"Mate thi- the fuck!?" Dust let out. "What you talking about?" The jackal asked.

"Don't play dumb! I've seen the way you look at Emily, you perverted bastard! I've been trying to get her to notice me for the last weeks, but since you came here she's been hanging out with you all the time, and every time she turns around…" He trembled as he remembered those looks, roaring in anger, his mouth flaring up, the effects of the previous water spray now gone. What made him hate the Riolu so much was that he was looking under as many tails as possible, whilst Nox never even considered doing that stuff.

"Well. It's not like I ask her to come with me." Dust said, starting to get ticked off. "And you call me a pervert? Well I'm not the one drooling over each time I see a nice plump rear end like hers." That last was uncalled for but Dust was getting hot and didn't thinking his words, more like spat them out.

This words made Natalie look at Emily out of the corner of her eyes. The younger Eevee knew more or less what it was to be wanted for her looks and this would probably hurt her more than any hit that a sparring match would provide. Emily felt confused at first, but the realization slowly dawned on her: Her continuous teasing had had an effect that she hadn't expected… and on two males too, who were at the edge of fighting for her. It made her depressed, but also extremely angry that they were willing to go to such an extent for her.

 **(From this point, listen to: "Red Hot Juice - Devil May Cry Extended" Credit goes to the composers)**

"Wait… Guys, you can't be serious about this! I never…" She tried to explain that she hadn't intended this all to be like that… But the both of them were already way too heated to even listen to her.

"You better back away from her or you'll be sorry!" Nox shouted, threatening the Riolu.

"And let her be with someone that will go after any ass he sees? LIKE HELL! YOU HEAR ME!?" Dust finally exploded, a snarl creeping to his face as his irises starting to emit a faint glow.

"Oh that's it… I'm going to teach you a lesson you're never going to forget!" Nox shouted over the referees, which were ordering them to calm down. The Houndour simply glared at them, breathed in and blew out a large streak of fire, separating the spectators and the fighters. "I'll burn you to a crisp!" He threatened once more, waiting for the Riolu to back down, intimidated by his display of power.

Dust kept his ground on this. The group backing away from the wall of fire that quickly spread into a big circle around them, his eyes focussed on the Houndour in front of him and the only words he let out… "You're on" Before dashing at high speeds towards the Houndour. Faster than before and getting ready to confront the fire and dark type all out. Nox howled out and charged against him as well, his claws lighting on fire, flames coming out of his mouth, meeting Dust halfway to him, his claws leaving behind charred marks on the grass. He breathed fire at the Riolu, but this one was much hotter than the one he had been using up to that point. Dust quickly summoned a bone rush to jump over the fire, but his left leg got caught in the fire, yet the golden jackal didn't flinch and went down to kick the Houndour from above.

It was clear things had escalated too much, and stopping these two would be hard. Radius and Shade were working an a tunnel to go under the fire but the heat made them have to stop to get away from it to cool down before it was unbearable.

Luna went to the hole too and tried to help, her ability letting her withstand the heat more than the Kaiser siblings but even she got troubles handling it after a bit of time. Meanwhile, back inside, Dust wouldn't hesitate to use his hidden powers, even if it tired him. It was his best shot at at least trying to make the other's flames less damaging. Nox received the full kick, but whilst he was backing away, so that motion wasn't interrupted, and immediately retaliated by jumping forward and slashing at Dust with one of his burning claws, continuously slashing at him whether his attacks missed or not. His plan was to either hit him with one of those, or try to force him to back into the wall of fire that was spreading behind him. But this Riolu wasn't about to back up, using his bone rush he tried to block the Houndour's claws, but some hit him dead on. Until he got fed up and pushed his opponent away, swinging his bone quickly to try and land a hit, turning his body and readying an Aura sphere that he threw at him.

Nox backed away after the staff swing, and dodged the aura sphere by jumping to the side. He then began running around Dust, then began jumping, leaving streaks of fire behind surrounding the fighting type, breathing fire at every chance he had to increase the height and intensity of the fires, as well as trying to get the Riolu tired from the heat. If Dust remained inside that ring of fire and Nox jumped in to keep up his relentless attacks, Dust would be very badly wounded… or worse. Dust looked around, squinting his aura glowing eyes. It wasn't a good idea to stay in that circle of flames. He had to think quick.

Bone in paw, the Riolu spurted a stream of water towards the fire, trying to dose it down enough. After this he used his bone as a pole to jump out of the fire circle. But he had already used this trick once before, and as soon as the fire began to lower in that section, Nox knew exactly what the Riolu was going for, quickly hopping into the ring and then lunging after the Riolu as he rose above the flames, spinning and spitting fire at the same time, becoming a blazing wheel of bright fire.

Dust saw this coming too late and barely had enough time to put his bone in between them to block the other's advance, his bone rush reaching breaking point, and splitting in two. Dust letting out a pained roar as he was engulfed in flames, kneeling to the ground, his bone rush dismissing as he tried to put out the fire over him by rolling and ending by digging down. Nox had hit the Riolu, which threw him off balance, making him hit the dirt with his back, quickly rolling back on his feet, his claws sliding on the dirt as he broke into a sudden sprint, taking breath to turn the digging Riolu into a pile of ashes.

Seeing this, Dust desisted to put the fire off for a moment and readied himself. The pain had to be the last thing in his mind right now. He waited until the fire and dark type was close enough that he couldn't avoid getting hit before launching an aura sphere at him, but Nox blasted the Riolu with another ball of fire, both projectiles flying past eachother. After this he let out a little current of water towards the sky. Letting it rain down on him, putting out the fire on his body and extinguishing the fireball, also alleviating some of the burning pain.

However, Nox received the aura ball straight to the face. It wasn't as strong as Eric's, but it still blew up in his face, blasting him away and flopping on the ground repeatedly like a ragdoll. He came to a halt as he dragged his claws along the ground, tiny drops of water falling on him, steam coming off of his body as a thick veil covered the battlefield, the water the Riolu had sprayed extinguishing some of the fires, like the wall that had separated the fighters from the horrified spectators. Emily was the first to notice this, but didn't say anything, and instead opted to break into a sprint.

Dust decided to take a bit of time to recover his breath. "How do you think one should treat a mate?" The Riolu asked the Houndour as he stood, looking at him with a seriousness as cold as the abyss. "What do you think one is willing to do for its mate!?" He roared now and waited for an answer.

Nox got up, his ears moving at the sound of Dust's voice. He got up, trying to think of an answer… but simply couldn't. He couldn't at that moment, and wouldn't have been able to before or after this. He just… simply didn't know. He had never thought about it in the first place, he had just… followed what he had seen in the past. He had never cared about that kind of stuff and had been completely ok… so why did the Houndour have to do so in the first place?!

"I'll tell you MY answer." The Riolu said, and dashed towards the Houndour. "I'll do anything for her!" He exclaimed as he reached Nox, throwing a simple but very hard punch at the Houndour's face and then followed with a side kick. "I'll give my life to save hers." The Jackal ended. Looking down at the his opponent, who honestly, was in better shape than him, even after a blast of an aura sphere to the face, which was his worst wound. While Dust had burns all over his body and fur signed here and there, yet he stood tall, not even shaking… yet.

Nox received both hits, then retaliated by howling and lunging for the Riolu again, biting down on his right leg. Dust flinched for this, yet he started to kick Nox with his free leg to get him to let go of his leg. Ignoring the pain of the burning on his left leg. Nox let go and jumped away, spitting out more fire to try and burn Dust yet again, but he wasn't aiming at all, and it just went everywhere with no rhyme or reason. The Riolu jumped back, trying to get out of the flame's range. He put some distance between them, panting heavily, tired from all of this fighting and the many blows he had already received from the Riolu. At that moment, Emily was rushing past the wall of fire and rushing in between them.

Both of the fighters looked at eachother and charged, Nox preparing another fireball, while Dust got a bone rush ready and got ready to hit Nox with him. However, before either of them could get close enough, another shape rushed into the battle, standing in between them: Emily. "STOP!" She screamed as loud as she could, effectively stopping them where they stood.

 **(Stop the music)**

Seeing her, Dust just stood there, his eyes locked on her now. "E-Em?" He asked, the only thing he could come up at the moment, not being able to form more words.

Nox, however, managed to speak. "Emily?! What are you doing?! Get out of the way, I'm trying to teach this bastard a lesson!" He shouted, confused as to why she was there. His words made Dust go back into a heated state.

"Don't talk to her like that!" He barked at the Houndour, stepping forwards. However, Emily shot serious looks at both of them, clearly unhappy with this whole situation. Neither of them had ever seen her like this, but just getting a look like that from her made them both feel ashamed.

"What are you two doing?! I never asked you to fight over me! I never wanted any of this to happen in the first place! I barely know anything about this kind of stuff, I just know about some adult things, and you two just went crazy over me… Why?! I was just… playing, I wasn't trying to make any of this happen! So stop, please, just stop, I don't want to see something like this!" She screamed, angry and sad at the same time, feeling absolutely livid, but also terrible that her playfulness had derived into something like this. And her face just made Nox feel like garbage.

For her words. Dust blushed, feeling like he had overreacted in an extreme way. His bone rush dissipating as the Riolu looked down to the floor in shame. No kind of apology will solve this at all. All of a sudden, all the tiring form this fight got to him and his legs shook until he knelt down, unable to stand. "Emily… I... " He started, trying to apologize to her over the lump forming in his throat. And to top the list, his vision started to get blurry, the side effect of his visual ability starting to kick in.

Nox's fire died out, looking at the duo in front of him. "I give up." He simply announced, turning around and walking away towards his group. He didn't even have to look at them to know they were furious and disappointed… but they probably wouldn't be as disappointed as he was in himself. He felt horrible and dumb, realizing that he didn't even know what he was doing from the very beginning. He knew he had found someone who was just as playful as he was… but he had never thought about anything that the Riolu had asked him. And it had discouraged him a lot. He wanted to say he was sorry for everything, but knew that whatever he wanted to say probably wouldn't make a difference, and instead opted to remain silent and take his punishment as it came. He needed to think about… everything, really. For once, he was doubting himself and everything he did on a daily basis.

Dust on his side had overreacted over all of this too and found himself unable to look at the Eevee in the eyes. His mouth kept tightly shut as he was unable to form words for her. In the end he summoned a little bone rush to help himself on his feet and went back to his group, ears low and head down as he walked, ignoring the pain in both legs as the one in another place was the worst of them. Over with Emily, Natalie went to her, just wanting to offer her company. If the slightly older Eevee didn't want to talk, the younger would not say a word. Emily felt terrible, and couldn't help but start sobbing and breaking into tears, crying softly so that no one else heard her. Nat poked her gently on a shoulder, wanting to call her attention so Em would know she was there, the emerald eyed Eevee having her ears lowered, just wanting to comfort her friend. Emily slowly turned around and hugged her, sobbing softly.

* * *

The following night was extremely bad for both of the combatants. Most of the pokémon in the house ate dinner in complete silence, and some had even lost their appetites and didn't eat anything. Even when it was well into the night, shouting and discussions could be heard from some of the rooms. Dust had closed himself in the basement, wanting to be alone, whilst Nox had to endure Eric's and Elly's lecture, though it was mostly Elly, since Eric couldn't even talk after a few minutes of shouting. He didn't say anything through the whole thing, he just took it all in and nodded when he agreed on what they were saying.

On the other part, Luca was worried for her cub. For his expression after that fight he had had enough and when they reached the house he only stood up to let her apply first aid on him before locking himself in his room. He refused to even answer the door. Let alone eat anything the whole day, More so after Hadrim's lecture about what happened. However, the days passed, and eventually everyone started feeling better. There were still some open wounds about the incident, and the relationship between Nox, Emily and Dust was still tense in a lot of ways… but at the very least they could bear to look at eachother in the face without breaking into what Serge had appropriately named "Apology Mode".

Even with the tensions of that accident, at least on the side of the Kaiser family they kept training every day trying to improve their abilities. Natalie had finally taken a fight with her fright of physical training and was doing her best to perform the basic Takle. ' _Damnit! Even the most basic of moves is hard to master._ ' She thought while she practised, but this thought brought fighting thoughts to her head, making her more determined to achieve her goal. Radius and Shade trained on their own instead of together for once. At this point Hadrim had trusted Team Star with the knowledge of their Hidden Powers, in order to avoid more surprises and also as one more trust vow. Everyone showing what they could do and explaining their ups and downs and limitations.

In exchange for this information, some of the members of Team Star had explained their uniquenesses, such as Zed's curious ability to transform, not just disguise himself, as other pokémon, or Lucy's tremendous speed. Eric and Elly also explained some of their strengths, but didn't delve into their magic abilities, which, for some reason, they were unable to perform, other than Eric's light magic and Elly's dark.

After the sparring matches that took place, Eric was convinced that the Kaiser household could hold their own, but the problem with preventing a surprise attack remained, so both Elly and Hadrim decided to look into the issue to find a solution. Both of the pokémon were reading through piles of books in Hadrim's and Luca's room, trying to find the answer to their questions. "How about… a 'Mind Shock Field'? It says that it will leave attackers stunned the moment they enter the field… Oh, it requires like five psychic types to do it." Elly looked at Hadrim and gave him a sheepish smile in apology for skipping such an essential detail. "Sorry." He just chuckled to her.

"At least you didn't try it before knowing that little detail." He said and then laughed a bit at the memory of his firsts attempts at creating a protection for the house. "I think we could make a dome that will leave the invader's minds open for a mental strike, but that one of us will have to do the mental strike. I know it is not very ethic to get into other's minds but… well I hope you get my point."

"Yeah, I do. It's basically as if we were trying to get a hold of them, but the dome does it automatically when they go into it. But… isn't that basically what you have set-up right now?" The Eevee asked, legitimately confused.

"Actually, no. What I have set up is an alerting dome. If a burglar comes in I will know it and go personally to fight it or scare it off." he said to her. "I agree that it will be best to have something more… automatic done but hey. I was the only psychic here until you appeared." He defended his method.

"Well, for being only you, it's pretty good. I might do something like this when we get back home… then again, we live in a village with a lot of other pokémon so… Everybody knows everyone, so if someone stole something they would probably be found out really quickly. But yeah, let's do try it out: They enter the dome, they start getting pressured and they either leave or we come in to fight them." Elly said, starting to like this idea.

"Yeah… that's what I have set up right now." He said and then his face lit up. "I remember the pack having this big dome that covers the whole island, as it is their territory… What? we share it with other packs of pokémon… This dome warns them of trainers getting close to the pack as well as pokémon hunters. Sadly Eeveelution eggs are expensive black market material." He said this with burning hatred, Elly looking at him surprised. This world's barbarities never ceased to surprise her… "The thing is. They need at least thirty Psychics to form the dome, and only twenty are for covering the area. The others are to add the properties with the which it works. For a smaller dom we need less psychic types. For one that covers this area of the forest." He circled in a map the had to a side an area that had the house in the center of it and the nearest river as a border. "It would be… maybe three for the dome and the same three will had to put up the properties of the dome." He calculated.

Elly then got an idea. "Then… why don't we improve the dome you have instead? You already have one created and that you're maintaining. I just add my powers to add some property like… inducing a headache upon unwanted visitors? Or maybe using suggestive hypnosis and trying to get them to leave on their own by pumping a fake feeling of fear into them?" Elly proposed some ideas

"You know for that of tricking them we have a master of trickery taking a nap on the branch of that tree." He said to her, pointing at certain Zoroark sleeping soundly. "If he was able we could made up an illusory dome that will trigger one of his illusions for those that have ill intentions coming into our area and even hiding the household for them." He suggested. "However I haven't seen him using his ability too much." the Espeon ended.

"Well, I meant the raw emotion of fear, like.. they suddenly feel afraid, or get bad vibes from this house and feel inclined to leave." Elly explained herself better.

"I see." He said, thinking about it.

Meanwhile, in the backyard, each of them were at their own business. Natalie enjoying a bit of sunbathing while she looked at Shade, Radius and Luna playing with the ball, simply passing it randomly and trying for the other to not catch it. Dust and Eric were talking about their aura abilities, and discussing the uses that aura sight had in combat, the golden Riolu talking to the blue one about something he called "double sight". It was a useful ability that helped with anticipating the opponent's next move, but he also told the other that the strain put in the eyes' nerves and for that part of the brain to process all that information could cause a side effect depending on how much the ability lasted, the side effects ranging from a light pain in the eyes to complete but temporary blindness, migraines being part of this range as well as some other things. Emily was walking around, considering coming over to play with them, Nox was sitting in the living room watching TV, and on the couch to his right Jake was reading a large encyclopedia, which talked about the many animals that lived in that world that weren't pokémon. Finally, Serge was sitting on the roof taking a nap

Elly and Hadrim eventually decided on which dome they would set up. "I still think we would better do this in the morning." The Espeon stated, not wanting to risk anything since his mind is not the only one on the line. However, the Eevee thought otherwise.

"We could do it now, we just have to tell everyone to not be worried if they feel something weird and we do it. The sooner the dome is ready the safer I'll feel. What do you think?" Her proposal sounded sensible enough but still it didn't put the Espeon's worries at ease about doing it right then. And even then he nodded to her and sighed a bit to start preparing his mind for the work at paw, sending a mental message to the whole household about what the two of them were about to do and asking everyone to keep a calm mind, then he waited for Elly to be ready.

Elly did the same, though instead directly contacted everyone in the team through their crystals. " _Hey guys… Me and Hadrim are gonna do something, so if you feel anything weird it's probably us, just so you don't freak out."_ She talked into their minds, and their responses came very shortly after that.

" _Alright, but be careful with whatever you're doing."_ Was Eric's response.

" _Both me and Nox have acknowledged your message, though he refuses to answer, too concentrated on watching a mindless action cartoon."_ The ice type simply answered.

" _Hey, shut up! Also, Serge's probably snoring away on the roof so he probably didn't hear you… and I don't have the faintest about where Zed and Lucy are, but their pendants are right there on the table."_ The Houndour pointed this out to the Eevee, who groaned in annoyance.

"You mean that they forgot them? Great…" She didn't realize she was talking out loud, and that Hadrim could hear her.

" _Well, as far as my knowledge extends, Zed and Lucy may very well be in mid-coitus as we speak… as surprising as this sounds. I overheard a conversation they were having."_ Jake informed the rest of the team in the most monotonous way possible, but their reactions couldn't have been more diverse.

" _Woah, really?! About time those two did it! They'd been swinging back and forth for like three months!"_ Nox celebrated the occasion. " _Although it's a shame they forgot their crystals. The one time I actually want Lucy to open her mouth and I can't hear her. Shame."_ He said with a perverted chuckle.

" _Alright, really Nox? That was just uncalled for. Besides, why would you want to listen in to Zed and Lucy whilst they're mating?"_ Eric asked all of a sudden, simply dumbfounded by the Houndour's words.

Suddenly, a new voice joined in. " _Did I just hear that Zed was reaching fourth base? Because if that's the case then..."_ Serge didn't even get to finish that sentence, because Elly just screamed into all of their minds.

"Guys, would you just drop this whole thing?! Just let them be and do their thing in peace!" She screamed out loud, her words making the Espeon besides her guess what she was talking about.

There was an awkward silence, then Serge's voice rang again. " _Well, at least now you can stop pestering Eric and Elly about it Jake. Now you can go ask Lucy and Zed!"_ The bird roared with laughter, and the Eevee immediately closed the communication, about to start screaming at the bird again. However, she decided to end the conversation and try to cool herself down.

"I won't ask about what you said out loud but… is everyone ready for this?" Hadrim asked her, making himself heard when he thought she was… alone in her mind again.

"Yes, most of them are. Zed and Lucy are… indisposed, but I guess this will the be the least of their worries right now…" She said, trying to change the conversation topic, beginning to feel really awkward.

The amber eyed Espeon fell silent for a few seconds before shaking his head and clearing his throat a bit. "Well then… let's get on with this." He said, starting to concentrate, the sapphire in his forehead starting to glow softly. "You better close your eyes, this can give quite a flash when I set up the dome." He said, pawing his gem caringly before going back to concentrate, waiting for her.

"Hey, if I need to concentrate I already close my eyes… anyways let's do this." She closed her eyes and began to focus with the psychic type, who sit down in front of her. Expanding his mind in a wide area, feeling the minds of those inside it. Once done he sent little psychic waves to the limit of his mind range. Dark woke up at felling some kind of push in the head but the Zoroark dismissed it and tried to go back to sleep. On other place, Hadrim almost flinched at one point, two minds were causing a tiny bit of troubles while Elly and himself tried to prepare the dome's properties, the Eevee trying her hardest to not blush as she felt those two minds, Hadrim trying to concentrate in the task.

"And this is why I rather do this in the morning when even your night guards are sleeping." He commented to her in a whisper, sure she would hear him, being the only ones in his room. Elly screamed internally, unable to withstand the embarrassment she felt. She was going to have a talk with the two of them when they were done. It was hard to work with those two sending mindwaves of their own, but the two of them could manage for the moment and ignoring them eventually became easy.

Meanwhile, outside, Luna, Radius and Shade kept playing with the ball. At one point they had to move to the side of the house because of Rad sending the ball over there and Luna running to catch it and the Vulpix then passed it towards Shade, but the shiny Eevee could not reach it, the ball passing over her, crashing into the window and going into the room. The ball hit Hadrim in the side of his face, making the Espeon break his concentration as the ball bounced on him and towards Elly, hitting her as well, shattering the hold they had around the house. His mind went into a retreat as soon as he was hit, but it didn't cut the slight connection to the other's minds that he was trying to link to the dome so it would not do anything to them. This, added with Elly's haywire hold on both their minds and the Espeon's own started a chaotic chain reaction that ended with all the pokémon in the household suddenly collapsing to the floor. For a slight second, everyone in the household felt like they were floating upward, before they lost all senses and blacked out, and if there was someone walking around and looking at the household, they would've seen small streaks of multicolored lights flying in different directions, before it all calmed down, normality seemingly restored.

* * *

 **Rayrudan: you think they will kill us?**

 **Eric566: Some probably will, some definitely will, some will want us to be dead yesterday… Well, at least your guys, because mine are completely unaware that I exist… But yeah, things are about to get pretty weird for everyone.**

 **Rayrudan: You're on, bro.**

 **Eric566: By the way, my readers may have seen an abundance of innuendos in this chapter, many more than in my fic. The reason for this is that more than half of the inhabitants and characters of this fic are young adults or teenagers. We found it appropriate that themes such as romance and sexuality would be a recurring theme in their casual conversations.**

 **Ray: Also, who doesn't find funny some… hot shenanigans?**

 **Eric566: There's a fine line between "hot shenanigans" and full out explicit descriptions or "lemons"; a line that I don't want to cross on this fic. There will be a separate section for those kinds of things, though it will be for those interested in that sort of stuff, just a friendly reminder: This fic will be a tiny bit spicier than my last. I'm trying out new things, see how the readers react.**

 **Ray: on another note, we are sorry for the amount of filler chapters. Our characters had to get to know each other for a bit before we could do anything… let's call it serious.**

 **Eric566: There will be a few more filler chapters in the future, but take into account that there are a lot of things that these two groups can experience and do, and we can't simply waste those chances for a few good laughs. That being said, the main plot of the story will start unveiling itself soon enough. Still, we apologize for all this filler.**

 **Ray: Both on his and my side. My bigger plots advance slowly but there are hints already. -wink- Soon enough all will start to speed up on this regard. So… well that's all hope to see ya'll next one! And Hope you enjoyed our little surprise.**

 **Eric566: Hope you're enjoying our fic so far, and we will see you in the next chapter. Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 6 - The Swap

**Damn, last time we were this early… yeah, not gonna end that sentence. Anyways, there's not awful lot to say before this chapter starts, asides from addressing some of the reviews we got in the last chapter. Rayduran and I thank you for your continued support... and yes, some of you hit the nail right in the the head with what was going to happen. Without any further ado… The Swap.**

 **Ray: Thought... I had to say one of you had an interesting idea. -mulls over it-**

 **Eric: Yeah… you just got called out by Ray. You know who you are, and I must admit… I don't know how you managed to guess all of that from what little information was available.**

 **Ray: You are just not one for no info cliffhangers, bro. Well, just saying we only own our characters and the region where this mess is happening, all about Pokémon is property of GF and TPC and we only do this for fun and for you guys so… Enjoy the chap and leave a review!**

 **Chapter 6**

 **The Swap**

It was a normal afternoon. Everyone was doing their things. Going to afternoon shift jobs, walking around, jogging, going shopping alone or with friends… Going about their business as every single day. In a house at the outskirts of the town, surrounded by the forest, a human boy was carrying a pair of unconscious Pokémon inside of the house after picking them up from the backyard, getting in and reaching the living room, laying the two pokemon gently on the couch. "Did you find them, Ichi?" Clara asked, her son turning to her and shaking his head.

"No. I've looked around a bit but I couldn't find Lucy and Zed." He answered. "What about Hadrim and Elly?"

"I found them in Hadrim's room. They didn't get cut by the glass shards luckily, but they've fainted, just like the others. I laid them on his bed and now I'm gonna clean the room." Clara said calmly and Ichiro let out a sigh of relief.

Inside the room, the Eevee started to slowly stir awake, her sky blue eyes opening slowly. Her vision was a bit blurry at first but it slowly focused, allowing her to see that she was almost face to face with certain Espeon with a sapphire on his forehead. She sat up in a jump, surprised for this and looked around, as if trying to see if someone was there looking. What she saw was the empty room, some glass shards in the floor and a ball under the shattered window.

At the same time, in the living room, a seemingly sleeping Sneasel was slowly returning to the conscious world. The first thing they noticed was something heavy weighing down on their chest, opening their eyes and looking at that spot. There they saw a huge thick book that had fallen on them, their chest hurting, probably because it had fallen on them as they fell asleep. They reached down with their hands to move the book away… and that was the moment when they realized they had hands, or rather claws.

Elly looked at the extremities in front of her, puzzled. They were slightly longer than her paws, and the fur on her arms was dark blue, instead of her normal brownish tone… "Wait, WHAT?!" Her scream echoed in the room as she pushed the book off of her, getting a better look at her own body more clearly. There was no mistaking it: She wasn't staring at her own body, but rather someone else's. It took her just a few more seconds to piece it together and realize that she was in Jake's body. An Eevee inside a Sneasel's body… this didn't bode well.

Natalie was confused. When she jumped down from the bed she realized that her vision was a bit higher than normal, looking at herself she didn't see any differences… with the exception that she felt taller. ' _What? Did I… grow up all of a sudden?_ ' She walked out of the room. The Eevee headed towards the bathroom, looking for a mirror to have a better look at herself. She bumped into Clara on her way there.

"Oh. You're finally up. Had a nice nap?" The woman smiled as she asked.

"Just a bit weird at one… point." Natalie trailed off at the end, when her ears caught the voice that came from her mouth, not listening to Clara's answer. This was getting weirder by the second. With a bit more haste, she went to the bathroom and searched for a mirror, having to jump onto the sink to reach it. It was then that she saw herself, and her eyes went wide open when they met their reflections. The realization that those were not her eyes dawned on her after a bit, and she shivered at the thought. The voice, the size and the eyes. ' _Shit! What am I doing in Elly's body!?_ ' She asked herself, almost panicking, and instinctively backed away, losing her ground and falling off from the sink and landing on her side. She muttered a quick apology… and felt stupid for it, yet she stood up and walked out, looking for someone, anyone, that was awake and knew what was going on.

She saw Jake in the living room and went to the Sneasel. "Jake." She called. She was having a nervous breakdown, but tried to explain her situation to him. Elly meanwhile, was flabbergasted that her own body had just called her… and was talking as if she was Jake!

"Wait… who are you?! What are you doing inside my body?!" She asked, getting down from the armchair… and finding out that her body wasn't made to stand on four legs, smashing her face against the floor, as she was a bit taller than her Eevee body.

Natalie stopped talking when he started to talk. Looking funny at the Sneasel for a bit when he asked that. "Elly?" She asked, and went to her side when she landed. "Are you okay?" She asked, offering to help him… her, to stand up. "I'm Natalie, and I woke up in your body. Thought I was the only one. Do you know what's going on?" She informed her friend and asked, restraining herself before she started saying the first thing that came to mind as every time she got this nervous.

"You are in my body? That's… a relief, really." She managed to lift herself up, standing up on two legs and swinging back and forth, grabbing onto the armchair to keep herself from faceplanting again. "Out of all the pokémon in this house, you're one of the few I'd trust my body with… the other being Eric and Jake… and maybe Lucy, but she's a little… you know." She was obviously kidding, even Lucy could've taken her body and she would be fine with it… which triggered a terrible, TERRIBLE thought in her head.

"Wait.. if you're in my body, and… I'm in Jake's… then where did Jake go?! And who is in your body?!" The Eevee had just now realized this, and was starting to get really worried. If just her and Natalie had swapped bodies, then there wouldn't be any problem… but what happened to their companions? Did they also get swapped around randomly?

As if on cue, a scream was heard, and a Pokémon rushed up to them. It was another Eevee, although she was smaller than Elly… her body, of course, and with silver fur. She ran up to Elly, who was in Jake's body, and pounced her, tackling her onto the floor, recognizing the Eevee as Shade, who began shouting. "Who are you, you filthy body snatcher?! Return me to my body at once or else I shall find Ely to be rid of you vile creature!" The speech mannerisms of the Eevee made it clear who was inside Shade's body at the time.

"Jake?! Is that you?! It's me, Elly! I'm stuck in your body!" As Elly shouted this, the Sneasel looked at her in disbelief, then looked at the Eevee standing right besides them… It was Elly, but… his own body was telling him that she was Elly… He got off of himself.

"What? This… this is impossible. Why.. What… how?!" Even Jake, with his analytical mind, couldn't wrap his head about what had just happened.

"Crazy, right?" The other Eevee said. "Natalie over here. And as hard to believe as it is, Elly's telling the truth." She added.

Jake sat down, wiping his forehead of invisible sweat. "This is preposterous… It was such a calm, normal morning… but then you were changing the dome's functions…" His new ears perked up on their own. "That is it! The key! Elly, did something happen as you and Hadrim configured the shield's functions and powers?!" Elly thought about what the former Sneasel was saying.

"I remember focusing on the minds of all the household members… and next thing something really hard hit my head… and then everything went upside down, as if I was flying… and then I blacked out and woke up in your body." Her answer was confusing and badly constructed, but it was all she could muster up, because that entire section was a blur in her mind.

Natalie was about to talk… when her own voice reached her ears and made her look at the couch, seeing herself looking at her paws after letting out a scream that didn't wake up any of the others, probably because they were all out.

"W-what the hell!? It wasn't some weird dream!? Why!? Where's my fire!? My fur!? My other five tails!?" Definitely… Luna was having a little bit of a crisis, her breath was fast and she moved until she fell off the couch and onto the floor. It was then when she saw the other three awake Pokémon and those emerald orbs focused on Natalie. "You! What did you two do!? If this is some kind of prank it is NOT funny IN THE SLIGHTEST!" She yelled to her while she walked up to the bigger Eevee, Natalie backing away against the wall.

"Uh… C-calm down, Luna! T-this is just an accident." Nat said, trying to calm down the other anxious female, but Luna kept baring her fangs. With such a young body it looked almost cute, if not for the serious tone she was using.

"You want me to calm down!? I lost my fire! I lost almost all my tails and I am in one of the smallest bodies in this household! If you don't fix it then I'll make sure to recover my typing by yesterday!" She yelled, distressed, but the threat made Natalie look at her friend. Was she willing to take HER option for her!?

"What!? Hey I'm not the one that caused this shit to happen, ok!? If you even dare get near a firestone while in MY body I swear I'll make sure you truly lose five of your tails personally!" Nat shot back, angered and not for little, Once done there is no way back in the situation the previously Vulpix has threatened with.

"Silence, you bickering irrational females! For starters, the Elly that you are talking to ISN'T Elly, Luna! It is in reality Natalie, who was swapped bodies with Elly. I am Jake, who is stuck in Shade's body, and Elly is stuck in mine. Second of all, this is NOT something she fully intended, or at least she has claimed so… so contain your anger!" The Sneasel wasn't having any of that stupid bickering, specially at a time like this.

"Butt off you ice hearted male chauvinist!" Luna let out, sitting down and looking at herself again. While Natalie sat up straight and breathed deep to calm herself before she talked again. However, the damage was done, and Jake looked at her, furious.

"You little ignorant fox! How dare you say something like that?! I firmly stand by the idea that both females and males are fully capable of being either intelligent or idiotic individuals, and I can safely claim that you, right now, are being one of the later!" Jake's words sound extremely weird when they come out of Shade's mouth.

"Please, Luna. Calm down, okay? We will find a way to fix this but first we need to know what happened." Natalie said and then looked at Elly. "When I woke up I saw some glass shards on the floor and a ball under the shattered window. Does this help you, Elly?" She said to… her friend.

"A ball…" She looks at her friends, her eyes stopping on the Pokémon that claims to be Luna. The realization dawns on her. "A ball!" She exclaims, looking at Luna. "Weren't you playing with a ball just outside of the house?!" She's looking at Luna accusingly.

"Yes. Radius, Shade and me. We were playing in the backyard and Hadrim's window is on the side of the house." Then she remembered. "Until Radius threw it to the side and we ran after it, I passed it to Shade and… broke the window." She finishes, blushing ashamed and laying flat on the floor in shame. "Aw shit." She let out.

What happened afterwards only happened once in all of history. Both Elly and Jake, at the same time, unleashed a flurry of words at the Vulpix-turned-Eevee. They criticized, chastised her, and Jake dropped subtle insults that went over the former fire type's head, but that Elly got and couldn't help but look at the Sneasel angrily, as if telling him to stop saying that stuff.

"Okay! Okay! It was me the one that hit you I get it but I didn't know! I just realized it now, geez!" Luna let it out, looking away, her cheeks still flustered in shame and those words being her way of asking them to stop their rampaging… albeit not clearly.

Elly groaned loudly in annoyance. "Oh this is such a mess… worst of it all, I seriously doubt I'll be able to use my psychic powers to revert this… Because of Jake's typing, I'm not going to be able to revert this whole mess… so let's cross our fingers and hope that Hadrim got into a body that doesn't have problems with psychic moves…" She was getting worried now.

"Let's hope, yeah. He has a chance of three out of twelve to end up in a Dark type's body." Natalie said.

As Natalie said this, a scream was heard from outside. Everyone looked at eachother, the first one to run outside being Jake. Elly tries to run off after him, but almost trips and falls, having to inch her way towards the backyard door little by little. Luna lost no time in running behind him to know what was happening, while Natalie went to Elly's side and offered her help once again to her and then going out after the other two, Elly obviously accepting the additional support.

As they come out, they find… Dark, who is hanging upside down from a branch and screaming their lungs out. At the same time, right underneath them, is… Luna, who is jumping up and down, looking at the dark type. "Hold on, Emily! I'll go get something to cushion your fall!" The fire type dashes away, their identity remaining unknown. Jake, who is apparently already fully accustomed to his new body, runs up to the hanging pokémon after the Vulpix leaves.

Elly sighs in relief as she overhears the conversation those two were having. "Well, at least that leaves two free dark type… please, don't let him be in Zed's or Nox's body…" As she says this, she looks at the Zoroark hanging on for dear life. "Let me guess… Emily? Is that you?" She didn't receive any coherent answer, but she could guess from how she was reacting. "Alright, calm down… does anyone have any ideas on how we're going to get her down from there?"

Jake shakes his head. "My current body is way too small. It could be seriously injured if I were to cushion her fall… and the same applies to my original body, so don't attempt any risky business, ok?" Elly nods. Of course she wasn't going to attempt anything, she would be the one getting hurt if she did.

"Dark's body may not have grown up fully but he's still big for any of us to try and cushion… her fall." Natalie commented, thinking. "Luca would be a good help here… or whomever is in her body at the moment." She had assumed that everyone had been swapped, since all that had woken up had found themselves in different bodies to their own.

As if on cue, another shout was heard. This time, a female's, though at that point nobody could be sure of that. " **Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**!" The shout was one of pure distress and fear, and instants after it was emitted, Luca ran out from the house and looked at the sky. She was covered in soup, probably the remains of today's lunch, and began jumping and flapping her arms wildly, as if trying to take off and fly. Eventually, she gave up, falling to her knees and covered her face, sobbing. "Why… **Why?!** " She looked up, raising her fist. " **Why must you be so cruel to me! What have I done to deserve such a nefarious fate!? You skank, lady luck! Why have you forsaken me?!** " She kept going on and on, the Lucario's identity pretty much obvious by this point.

"Dibs that we just found Serge." Luna commented, watching this saddening display.

"Seems like it." Natalie said, counting the percentage in her head but not voicing it, and biting her lower lip a bit since they just ended in two out of ten.

"That's not even a guess at this point…" Elly said, whilst Jake remained silent. He knew the bird was trying to be poetic… but it just came out ridiculous looking. At that moment, the Lucario locked eyes with the group, more specifically, Natalie, who was once again mistaken for Elly, as Serge ran up to her and grabbed the Eevee, then began shaking her vigorously.

"Elly! What have you done?! Why am I inside another pokémon's body?! Why don't I have wings?! **Why can't I fly?! I need to fly!** Flying is my life! I need to fly! Fix it, fix it, **fix iiiiiiiit!** " He began screaming his lungs out, albeit since it was a female's voice, it sounded more like screeching.

Poor Natalie ended with swirls in the eyes and dizzy with that shaking the Lucario was giving her, trying to tell him she wasn't Elly.

"Serge. You are not the only one that swapped and that's Natalie right now." Luna informed him. "Elly's right here." She pointed at the Sneasel, who was trying her hardest to keep herself on her new two feet, a task made difficult because of Natalie's absence. Noticing this, Luna went to her side to offer some help herself, but forgot about her now smaller body, still she might be of some help… maybe.

She was too short, but instead of complaining Elly just cursed Jake's natural height, and the fact that he was always standing straight. The Sneasel didn't reach pretty high either, so the only thing she could do was stand perfectly still, keep that balance she somehow had and pray to high heaven that Serge didn't take out his confusion and frustration on her. Thankfully, it wasn't like that, and the Lucario set down the Eevee he had been shaking, tapping her head before moving over to look at Elly. "Alright… can you tell me what exactly happened?" The previously psychic user explained the whole situation to him, but omitted the part where they had figured out that Luna and the rest had been the source of all that. That information didn't favour anyone at that specific time.

"Well… then let's try to find everyone else… and play the greatest game of "Guess who?" ever." Even at times like those, Serge could still crack some jokes.

"Always positive, huh?" Natalie asked him with a smile after she recovered from her dizziness and went back to help Elly.

Another shriek was heard as the group began talking. Everyone looked at the upside down hanging Zoroark, suddenly remembering what they were supposed to be doing. "Right… Serge, would you kindly help Emily down from that tree?" Jake asked in an extremely weird tone, which felt like an order more than a statement. However, Serge recognized the reference, smirking.

"Didn't know you liked THAT type of literature…" He approached the Eevee in Zoroark's fur, opening his arms wide. "Alright Emily, hear me out! You're gonna fall and I'm gonna catch you before you fall down, ok? Let's count down fr-" Before he could end that sentence, the Zoroark's face suddenly changed from that of distress to cheerfulness as she let go of the branch. She screamed in delight, and he screamed in horror before the full weight of the Zoroark came down on poor Serge, who was stuck in Luca's body. Sure, he may not have been fully grown, but he still packed a punch, tackling the Lucario into the ground, successfully cushioning the fall, making it so that she felt barely anything.

She happily got off of him, dusting herself off and looked at her improvised safety net. "Thanks Luca!" She shouted. Everyone looked at her, really confused, but Elly guessed that she was so absorbed into her own world that she hadn't realized what had actually happened. After they managed to stop her from strolling away, once again, they retold the entire story. "Wow… That sounds fun! And here I was wondering why Luna was calling herself Nox…" As she dropped that information bomb, everyone looked at the Zoroark, then at Luna.

"Know what? I think we better wait until we are all together to explain eve- **what did you just say**!?" Luna started talking and then what Emily said reached her brain and was processed, interrupting herself mid sentence and looking back at Emily, the Zoroark standing like a quadruped, luckily his body structure allowed it or Emily would be feeling a bit uncomfortable. "No! That… hot headed can't have my body!" She barked almost getting anxious again. "Of everyone to get in there it had to be him! He better not try anything funny." She let out, breathing again to try and calm herself before she exploded again like before.

"Speak of the devil…" Serge said as he got up and pushed his back in place. As if on cue, Nox appeared from behind the house, carrying several sticks and leaves in his mouth. As soon as he turned around the corner and got a look at the group, the sticks fell from his mouth.

"Oh come ON! The one time I try to be a hero and a "gentleman" and I get shut down like this!" He pouts and kicks the sticks away in a rage, walking up to them. "Hey Elly, can you please tell me what the hell's going on?" He then notices the deadly looks that Natalie is giving him. "What's up with you? Something on my face, asides from being inside a hot headed vixen's body?" He somehow managed to repeat the same insult that Luna had used before to describe him.

"Nox…" Luna calls him trying to control her temper for once instead of plain out slapping him and making him spin like a spinning top. "That there in Elly's body is Natalie, Elly is right by her side… We'll explain later when we are all together." She said to him, not revealing herself just yet, but that he somehow gave her back her insult to him made her want to slap him.

Nox didn't understand what she was saying, but he just shrugged. "Alright, I don't really understand it all, but I'll play along." He said, rolling his eyes and walking alongside them, shooting weird glares at Luca, who was acting really weirdly.

Natalie rolled her eyes for this. "Look, Nox. You are in Luna's body and Emily here is in Dark's, what makes you think the rest of us hadn't changed bodies too?" She asked him. "Anyways we better talk later and keep looking for the others, I think some are in the living room. Serge… you should look where you were before you woke up as Luca, because the one in your body will be there. And does anyone know where Zed and Lucy went?" She asked, trying to keep a cold mind and concentrate in the task at hand of getting them all in the same room first and talk about this situation later.

"Oh I'm gonna tell you where we went alright, you low life furry sorry excuse for a best friend!" Suddenly, Dust walks into the scene, looking absolutely livid, with another Riolu walking up from behind, standing behind the other Riolu and… blushing? Elly immediately recognizes the body as her mate's… and the pokémon inside of it as Zed, and of course, following Lucy as always, with her wonderfully colorful language.

"Oh not this again, please." Natalie muttered to herself and wishing someone stopped the incoming Riolu and explained the basics to Lucy. However, Elly, who was in Jake's body, was the one to step forward.

"Lucy. Stop. That's not Elly, I'm Elly. I'm stuck inside of this body because somehow our bodies got swapped whilst you two were away." She tried to excuse herself and skim over what had happened. "Sorry about all this, but… please, keep yourself calm until we find everyone, ok? We don't know where you two were before, and… we still haven't found Eric, Luca, Dust, Dark… and worst of all, Hadrim. Do you know where your bodies were before this… mess started?" Elly asked.

Lucy and Zed looked at eachother, sharing a guilty look. "Oh, it's gonna be a MESS alright… Yeah, we can probably find ourselves… that sounds weird, but… it's not gonna be nice to find whoever got stuck in our place. I mean, they're going to get one hell of a surprise when they wake up, that's for sure… But oh my god, this body is horrible! The nose is way too good, and I can't stop smelling myself, and I smell _horrible_ Elly. _Horrible!_ " She inched closer to the Sneasel, making a really strange situation, made even more awkward by the fact that neither of them could properly stand on two legs. She stumbled forward and Elly had to catch her, which also unbalanced her, the duo standing still in a weird embrace.

"Ok ok, stop carping, will you? I'll fix this up as soon as we find the rest, specially Hadrim, but please, go find your bodies now. Do you want someone to tag along?" Immediately Lucy let go of her friend, and didn't face plant because Zed, who was used to walking on two legs thanks to his usual transformations, grabbed her paw and pulled her back, both of them ending in a rather awkward pose with her leaning against the Zorua, who was in Eric's body. The image of Eric holding Dust as if they were a couple would forever be burned into their minds.

" **No!** " Both of the fighting types shouted in unison, looked at eachother, and Zed decided to take up the word. "We'll… go look for them on our own, ok? We won't be out for long!" Zed and Lucy walked towards the trees just the way they came: Lucy walking awkwardly from side to side and Zed helping her keep her balance.

Serge snorted as he saw this. "Wow, that awkward walk… If these wasn't any context to this, you could safely assume that…" Suddenly something clicked inside of his head. "Ooooh shit weren't the-" Before he could end that train of thought, Elly applied her elbow to his side. It was a critical hit, because the Pidgeot bent forward and cut himself off, the Eevee giving him a cold glare similar to those that the original owner of her new body usually gave. "Alright, point taken…" He simply said, admitting defeat.

"Elly… the odds are getting slim. Had has two out of seven to be in a dark type." Natalie counted and recounted to make sure she had them all in mind before informing the former Eevee and counting again as they still had to know who was stuck in Nox' and Zed's bodies.

"Don't even remind me… alright, let's split up." She looked at the still groaning Lucario. "Serge, you were sleeping on the roof, right? If that's the case, someone up there is either still snoozing away or about to fall off, so get up there ASAP. It could easily be Eric or Hadrim, and we need those two intact." The Lucario stood straight and saluted her mockingly, trying to fly away with his wings… just to realize that he didn't have them and looked like a total idiot. He resigned to his condition and walked inside the house, his head hanging low, Nox following him. Luna in one paw didn't like being near the other fire type, she tolerated him since, ok he's a good guy and she had seen that during the time that this exploration team had been in the household, even if his behaviour rubbed her in the wrong way. On the other paw she'd rather be vigilant, hell she would even volunteer to SLEEP WITH HIM to make sure he didn't try anything funny at any moment. She didn't know how much she would last around him but she followed the other two, offering her help to them if needed.

"Alright, that's that… Natalie, help me get over to Hadrim and Luca's room. We need to check on Hadrim's body, see who is stuck inside. And as for you guys…" She looks at Jake and the ever so innocent Emily, who is way too distracted looking at the clouds in the sky. "Why don't you two go check on the other pokémon on the couches? With some luck, one of them will be Hadrim." Jake responds with a nod, walking away on four paws like a natural born, whilst Emily followed him closely, alternating between walking on four legs and two, tempted to try out her new body.

"It's… kind of nostalgic seeing and hearing Dark so childish again." Natalie commented, some memories coming to her and making her smile a bit to then help Elly get to the room where Hadrim's body was still passed out. Both of them approached the room and walked inside, where they saw some glass shards on the carpet. Not too far away from the entrance was the bed, on the which Natalie had woken up, and on it was Hadrim's unconscious body. If Elly had fingers, she would be crossing them… She had the tendency to facepalm as she realized she now had fingers, but didn't really know how to cross them. Either way, they approached the Espeon, giving his body a gentle nudge.

"How much you think it takes for someone to wake up from this?" Natalie asked out of the blue while looking at Hadrim's body for a moment. However, the Espeon started to stir after those words and his amber eyes opened after a moment. The one stuck in Hadrim's body had to wait for a few seconds before its vision focussed and it could see clearly again before looking around and seeing them there, sitting up. The first sign that something was off for Nat and Elly was the frown that came upon the Espeon's face, who looked down at himself... and then all over. ' _Not Hadrim._ ' Natalie thought and she was about to ask when…

"Okay… can any of you explain what is going on or are you going to let me guess?" Keeping calm and trying to stay cool even being so nervous that claws came out of the body's digits… Natalie knew her brother too well to know where to look at when she heard this tone trying to be as normal as possible and almost managing to do so.

"It seems like we just found Dark." She said, shaking her head a bit after looking at the Espeon's body language.

"Uh. Yeah. But again… why am I back to four le-erm… paws?" He confirmed and added the question, sounding a tad more insistent this time, sitting in front of them on the bed.

Elly couldn't help but smile. "We'll explain it later, but… just so you know, I am Elly, and this is Natalie. We've had our bodies swapped. We found Emily in your body, in case you wanted to know." The Sneasel informed the former Zoroark quickly, obviously leaving the longer, more drawn out question, for whenever they were all together.

Meanwhile at the roof of the house. Luca had woken up already and was holding onto the roof for dear life, her eyes closed and… wings and talons hugging the roof, she didn't know how she got there, and at the moment she didn't care. She just didn't want to fall down from such a high place. Serge walked into the room just underneath where she was, trying to figure out where he had been sleeping. "It should be around here… Hey, is anybody up there?! Hello?!" Serge shouted with the Lucario's own voice.

Luna went for her side and approached a window, at least she had remained on all fours so she had just to readjust a bit her movements, being able to look out onto the roof to see a Pidgeot hugging the roof with everything. This made her nervous. "Okay, I think the one in your body is afraid of heights." Serge walked over and leaned outside, noticing the bird that was clinging for dear life.

"Oi, you sexy beast! Who are you?" He asked with an obviously sarcastic tone, a foot already on the window frame.

"Not the best time for that, birdbrain! Help… your body out of this, no one here knows how to fly except you… and I think your wings are in another's commands. Are you going to risk a broken limb?" The former Vulpix was heating up again and when she realized she started to breath again to calm herself. "In other words. Quit joking for now and let's help." She said and walked towards the Pidgeot being careful of not slipping and falling herself down to the ground.

Serge bit his lip and huffed and looked down at the floor, as he was standing just outside, on the window frame. "Well jeez, I heard Nox call you hot headed… he wasn't lying! And what am I supposed to do, tell them to not move because they could potentially break every bone in their body? The least I can do is joke so they don't lose their… grip!" As he said this last part, he jumped up and clung onto the roof of the house, looking down. It wasn't that much of a huge fall, so it wouldn't hurt that bad… his body was used to drops like that. Then again, his new body wasn't, but he was still managing just fine with it, getting up onto the roof and walking over to the panicking bird. Just like he said: All in the mind.

"Well sorry for not wanting a friend falling of a house's roof and breaking another friend's bones. Next time I know not to worry." She let out just like that and stopped. "That was too harsh…" She said as an apology, head and ears lowered.

Serge decided to not pay attention to anything she said, and instead crouched down and extended his new acquired paws at the bird's wings, grabbing them, "I gotcha, I gotcha… Now start pulling yourself up before I rip my wings off! I'm not that much of a fatass!" He says, pulling up.

The one in his body freaked out for a moment when it was grabbed, just to then relax when it heard a familiar voice… way too familiar. Looking at who was helping it the bird's eyes went wide open but still followed the words and pulled itself up. It wasn't until the both of them were up there that it was known that the one in Serge's body was Luca, who had fainted while preparing lunch. "Cool story." The bird answered in a rather lively tone. "Now… quick question… How do we get down from here?!" He asked, realizing that they had no other way to get down.

Down in the living room Emily and Jake found Radius, who ended up in Nox's body, Shade in her brother's and eventually they found Emily's body… who was sitting against a corner and looking at the wall. Jake and Emily were tempted to talk to the Eevee… but then again, if they were in that position, it had to be for a reason. At that moment, four pokémon were walking out of the trees. The two Riolus that had disappeared into the brush before, and of course, a Zorua and a Shinx, both of their faces blank and completely scarred.

"Now… we all agree that this never, ever happened, and **never** tell **anyone** of what happened in there?" Lucy asks in Dust's body. Both Lucy and Zed, who were in fact Dust and Hadrim respectively, nodded. But the damage was already done, and they both doubted they would ever be capable at looking at eachother the same way for the time being. It was a simple deal. Neither of them said nothing about how father and son woke up and they won't be the laughing stock of the household, in exchange Lucy would keep the Everstone on her and they wouldn't tell the rest of the household what the couple was doing right when the accident happened. Dust didn't know if his body would change without his mind, but either way he didn't want to risk it. Hadrim looked at his son in Shinx' body when he insisted so fiercely on Lucy keeping the stone close, but held back the question in his mind and looked at the Riolu pair.

"What about Elly?" He asked. He wanted to know if the other psychic user of the household had been luckier than him regarding typing.

Zed didn't know if to answer or not… but he eventually did, though his answer was preceded by a sigh. "She ended up in Jake's body… so she can't use her psychic powers either."

It was Dust's turn now to look at his father in a Zorua's body. It is curious how body language travels with the mind as well. Hadrim stiffened for a moment and his eyes went tense. If he was in his body one of his eyelids would have twitched as a sign of him snapping. And honestly with all this mess and a bit more from before this day… This Espeon-turned-Zorua NEEDED to let it out. "Please… forgive me for putting such foul words in your mouth, Zed." After this he filled his lungs with air and… " **Just Arceus damned perfuckingfect shit!** " And with that, Hadrim started to rant with curses, swears, think the foul word you know, he said them all!

Meanwhile, Dust sat down and started to count each one of them, until he lost count after fifteen. The normally cooled and calm minded male went into a fit, spitting out all of what had him tense with at least five and at max ten swears in the middle of it. Was one to listen carefully they could understand why he was so pent up. Once he finished, Hadrim stayed panting for a moment to then breath deep, just like Luna usually does to calm herself, and sat down, clearly a lot more calm than before. "We better get to the others and start to think on how to get help to fix this." He said and looked at Dust. "How many this time?" He asked out of the blue.

"I lost count after the first fifteen then counted around thirty more. So I'd say new record?" The now female quadruped electric type said, rather awkwardly.

Hadrim just sighed. "I owe your mother forty five poké, then, at the very least." Hadrim stated. Zed and Lucy had been staring at Hadrim dumbfounded. Hearing all of those obscenities leaving the Zorua's mouth was uncommon enough… this was going to be a really weird experience for all of them. A few minutes later, they finally got back to the house and entered the main room, where everyone was in now. Serge and Luca had miraculously gotten down from the roof after having carefully trudged along the window frames… with a bird in his arms. But it had worked nonetheless, and now they were all standing around the table inside the living room, making a circle around it.

"We look like a secret cult that is about to have their super secret reunion…" Once again, the bird resorted to literary references to make jokes, which wasn't missed by avid readers in the room, who either looked at him and smirked or looked away, trying to hide a quick smile. Either way, the room was dead silent, and after everyone had settled in and were calm enough… "Alright, time to play… "Guess who?" super deluxe edition. Featuring the entirety of Team Star and the Kaiser household!" He just couldn't stop himself, could he?

"Well… anyways… let's try to pull ourselves together, ok?" Elly announced this and said who she was. Everyone in the room explained who they were… except for one pokémon in particular. Whoever was in Emily's body had remained silent.

"And you are?" Hadrim asked calmly to the silent Eevee. Having on account that they were only focussing on the minds in the household when this happened he had a guess but he decided to wait patiently for the Pokémon to say who was in that body.

They didn't say anything, Elly walking up to them. The Eevee visually cringed as the Sneasel approached, and Elly knew exactly who it was. Everyone from the Kaiser family had said who they were, and so had the members of Team Star… all there, except for one. She stood in front of them… "Eric?" She simply asked. There was an awkward moment of silence that lasted for a full minutes, before the Eevee fell over and face planted, letting out a muffled "Yes". Several of the pokémon in the room erupted with laughter, such as Nox and Serge, who couldn't help themselves.

Luna also burst out laughing for this, hell it was Eric, the one who had his team in a strict regime of training to keep in shape, who ended in the only body of this house that the only training she did was trying and failing to sneak up on the rest of the household, except for that one time but it was because Luna was more asleep than anything. Dust also sniggered but on his part, he tried to hold back out of respect even if it was escaping him miserably at least he wasn't plain out letting his lungs in the laugh. Aside from this two, the others stood silent, some not finding it funny in the slightest, others completely holding back as to avoid making it worst for the former Riolu.

After it all settles down, Eric raises up to his feet, looking at Elly, who returns an affectionate look and hugs him, sending the message that she was glad to know he was fine. Jake coughs and clears his throat after the first two minutes of said hug. "Elly, please, I would rather have my body intact for when I regain control over it." The former Eevee separates herself from her mate, albeit they stick close to eachother. Jake steps forward. "Thank you. And onto more pressing matters… We have all been body swapped under strange circumstances, and thus have lost control over our original bodies and abilities. I don't have to explain that this is an extremely bad situation… which would be an understatement, in my honest opinion. Elly, if you please…" He takes a step back after announcing what he had to say and Elly is the one that steps into the middle, looking at Hadrim, who is stuck in Zed's body, also expecting him to take a step forward. This was also his doing so the former Espeon also stepped forwards to explain this mess… and give some bad news to everyone.

"Well… first of all, we want to apologize for this mess… But we know that a simple apology won't suffice. We plan on finding a way to fix this as soon as we can, and we're going to start as soon as this talk ends… but we have to explain some things first, the first of the which are, unfortunately, a tad bit of bad news." Elly said, letting Hadrim take it from there.

The Zorua looked at everyone before starting to talk. "Due to the the type of the pokémon we are stuck in now… our psychic abilities have been canceled. And taking time to unlock them again would take months or years. And I doubt any of us want to wait that much." He stated, some of the pokémon there nodding.

"The sooner the better." Luna said trying to keep an even tone while her eyes went like daggers towards Nox.

"Now now… let's not despair." Elly said, trying to settle down whatever worries they were starting to have. "Hadrim and I have been talking about this issue… and from what he's told me, this isn't the first time this has ever happened. There are recorded events in history where pokémon found themselves in situations such as these and were able to return to their original bodies. Sometimes, extremely powerful psychics were used… and others, they seeked legendary pokémon for help. However, we are not exactly sure to whom they talked to, because… well, they're stories. But we've got to start somewhere, right?" Elly said. Her answer hadn't exactly been well received, but they really didn't have any brighter ideas, and the two pokémon that were talking right now where the experts when it came to this sort of stuff.

Hadrim was sure that neither of them wanted anyone to know about this mess, or at least as less outsiders as possible, so calling for the pack's help on this, which in and of itself was an idea, was kept in Hadrim's mind for the moment. "I remember reading about one Legendary that has the ability to mindswap." Natalie said. "Can't remember who at the moment."

"Well… seems like we got some research to do so… get a book, a cup of your favorite drink and a piece of fruit… and get to read." Hadrim allowed himself a tiny joke to lighten the mood and take some pressure off his back. After it was clear no more talking was going to be done, the Pokémon started to move, but Luna instead of going to find a book, she went directly towards Nox.

"Listen to me for a moment, Nox. I know you are a good guy under that boasting and hotheadedness of yours, but I'm not going to risk anything so... until this mess is fixed we will be sleeping in the same room!" She stated for him, making some of the remaining pokémon in the living room look at her with surprise but no one said a thing.

Nox, however, looked at her as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him. "No way!" He shouted, getting depressed. Lucy overheard them and laughed.

"Well, I thought you wanted to sleep with a girl Nox!" She exclaimed, making fun of the former Houndour's condition.

"I still do! But… not like this!" He responded, clearly annoyed.

"What are you thinking about? I said in the same room, not on the same bed. I rather keep an eye over you, just in case." Luna added, not so clearly stating what she wanted to prevent him from doing but it was probably clear… It was for Dust and Dark, since both of them got a smirk on their muzzles. Even Lucy got it, and she couldn't help but snicker, hissing at Dust so he looked at her, then napped the armband on her right arm, reminding him who was in control. Knowing the Houndour, however, not even that kind of threat would've mattered, no amount of observation was going to keep him from doing it.

* * *

The Lone Island, known to many as The Inaccessible, and not because of the sake of it, but rather that it truly was an inaccessible island, since the currents around the island were maddening, be it in the air or in the water. This meant that the sea was always roaring in it's surroundings, and that black as coal clouds covered the sky, powerful lightning bolts raining down onto the fertile and living surface of the island. The place had it's own… chaotic peace, so to say. Nobody knew why the weather around that area was so volatile and the conditions never really allowed for a more detailed investigation should they be carrying appropriate equipment, and the crags that surrounded the island were far too steep to be climbed. There was only one way that lead towards the upper area of the island, and towards the centre, but it was only visible as a small plain about thirty meters above the water.

However, conditions were somehow even worse that day, with thunder and electricity raining down non-stop, twisters appearing in the water and boulders falling from the crags. At that point the thunderbolts were focusing in one spot as they twisted around an invisible epicentre where all electricity congregated, and where a shape slowly began taking form as flesh and bone were seemingly created from the many bolts that struck it. The creature, whose body was still forming, looked at it's claws whilst two wings flapped on it's back with incredible strength, and eventually the electricity faded, absorbed by the creature's body. It's fur was golden, with completely red eyes, and it's body seemed like that of a human, yet it had many animalistic traits which were reminiscent of a wolf's and… some of a dragon's, such as it's feathery wings at the long tail, and of course, the six horns that protruded from it's head. Whilst it's fur was mostly golden, the front part was a bit more clear, and it's claws were a bright yellow, just like it's horns. The feathers had much more darker tones towards the ends, whilst the tail had a longer and purplish fur and green stripes covered its body, similar to those of a tigre. The creature smiled and let out a mighty roar towards the heavens, the dry thunderstorm above it intensifying even further, bolts dancing amongst the clouds, whilst two more struck the creature directly, who held them as if they were physical entities. Nature's electricity formed two blue blades, charged with natural and eternal electricity that the creature converted and absorbed.

Down in the depths, the water twisted and coiled, and it didn't take long for a true underwater twister to form around an aquatic sphere that seemed to be absorbing it, slowly taking a shape similar to that of the electrical creature. However, this creature's body was covered in blue scales, the scales on it's head being of a much lighter tone, and progressively became darker and darker as they travelled down to its tail. A true deluge started pouring from the clouds up high whilst the creature rose through the twister, which slowly closed and disappeared once the creature was standing above the water. It then put a hand inside of the water and pulled out a massive water hammer, the size of the which was comparable to that of the creature, the handle solidifying to turn black, whilst the head hardened and took a shape and colour reminiscent of underwater rocks. After the weapon formed, it placed it on its back and began moving towards the island, the rain stopping.

Back in solid ground, the trees twisted and bent, whilst the earth trembled and cracked. A rock stuck out from the earth, covered in roots and vegetation. It slowly cracked like an egg shell and opened as a creature similar to the other two burst out, except that this one's body was completely made out of rock, was missing an arm, a wing and three horns. However, the tree roots around it weren't long before they began crawling across its' body and formed the missing limbs, including the horns. From the ground it rose a massive greatsword with a basalt edge, to then approach a tree and grasp a branch, only to pull out a massive wooden hammer. Both weapons were sheathed on the creature's back, both of them massive enough to be intended to be wielded two-handed, but it moved them around with ease with just one. The creature sat down on the center of the island. Waiting.

Far from there, in an island away from The Inaccessible, Fierna was it called, a sleeping volcano suddenly burst to life with a strong explosion, sounding off in all directions so loudly that the inhabitants of the island feared that the world was ending. Massive quantities of lava rose to the sky, but instead of raining down on the island, it stayed floating above to the amazement of the witness of this rather strange… turn of events in this catastrophe. In the crater, a winged being walked out of the lava. It's body was completely made out of lava. The exterior of its body started to form a cracked volcanic rock husk, solid and resistant, but not for that less hot than what it contained. Its eyes were lava. Wings of fire and rock rose the being up towards the floating mass of liquid fire, where it submerged a claw. All that lava was then slowly absorbed. Tons of boiling melted rock concentrating in the same place until the only thing remained was a staff with a solid rock exterior but with a core as hot as the planet's heart. Just like the being's body, who redirected its flight towards the island where the others were. The inhabitants of Fierna were stunned by these… paranormal events. Some were afraid while others ended weirded out by this event. There were even some that recorded it with their pokenav or their phones.

It is said that in graveyards… the dead rise from their graves. If that were to be the case, one would expect they'd do so during the night, not in the middle of the day. In an ancient place of Kirol Island, a black mist was concentrating in a spot where one could appreciate many small ruins, amongst the which one would see wooden crosses. However, the mist stopped above a empty plain. Slowly, the ground split, a skeletal claw poking out and excavating up, another following suit, a large hole soon forming. From it rose a bare skeleton, hollow on the inside, and was enveloped by the black mist completely as the creature roared out, it's spectral voice echoing across the island and reaching a pack of pokémon and a lone house not too far away from a small village. Once the skeleton was completely enveloped by the mist, it trailed down it's arm and took the form of a large two handed scythe, but before it completely solidified, the being held it out and reformed, this time taking the shape of two large black guns that the being put inside of it's chest, under the mist. Its head was covered by the same mist, albeit it looked like a hood. The mist then fell down its arms and body, trailing behind like a tunic, extending even to it's wings as they flapped, carrying him upwards and then towards the Inaccessible.

* * *

The sun had set over the horizon, and everyone in town was going back to their homes to enjoy dinner with their families. However, outside of the city, in the countryside, a family was going through pure hell.

"Let us go, you don't have-!" The head of the family's voice was cut short as he, his wife, his two daughters and the mother's father were locked away inside of a truck, the hermetic lock of said truck making it impossible for their voices to be heard in the outside, where desert camo wearing men with guns were watching the truck. A man without a weapon, wearing the same camo with a slightly redder tinge and brown beret, pounded on the side of the truck.

"All clear! Transport these to the laboratory for testing!" The high-ranking soldier ordered the driver to do so, who turned on the engine and drove away, waiting in front of a barrier, which two guards lifted, doing a military salute as the vehicle drove away into the setting sun. The entire farm was surrounded by a barbed wire barrier, which the military looking men had taken transported with them there. To the right of the house, and between this building and the farmhouse was a large white tent, from the which came out a steel pipe, which connected the tent at a large container truck, the sound of a liquid being sucked out could be heard.

A man of small stature approached the tent as the truck with their test subjects departed. His blond hair shone against the outline of the sun, and the surface of his glasses reflected the light, making it unable for the soldiers to see his blue eyes, his white coat waving with the gentle breeze, underneath the which had a simple black short sleeved shirt and the same camo trousers the armed men had. He approached the entrance of the tent, where two soldiers with Kalashnikovs were standing guard. They both stomped the ground and saluted the man, who ignored them and walked right in, where more scientists were walking about. In the middle of the room was a glass dome, out the top of the which came out a steel pipe. Inside, a thick black liquid was being sucked out with a lot of force, travelling extremely quickly.

The blond haired scientist got close to a brown haired one, who stood straight and saluted. "Gerard, yes sir!" He shouted, the aforementioned scientist's face instantly cringing, waving his head in displease. He disliked it when they saluted like that… it was ridiculous and unnecessary.

"Report. What is the status of the reserve?" He inquired.

The lower ranking scientist turned around, flipping through papers on a table and reading the text on it. "The liquid's extremely corrosive properties made extraction extremely difficult. However, through process of deduction, we have managed to suck up the liquid quickly enough so that it's corrosive effect doesn't affect the piping, which is deposited inside of an anti-gravity field, produced by the activity of two giant magnets, and then is transported safely inside the carrier trucks. So far, four containers have been filled, and only fifteen percent of the reserve is left! Calculations estimate that extraction will be completed in 20 minutes!" The full report was read out loud to Gerard, who then grabbed the papers and inspected them personally. The scientist had intentionally omitted the material losses they had suffered because of their incompetence, as well as the loss of a rifle and an arm from a rookie soldier, who had the bright idea to dip the gun into the liquid.

"She won't be pleased with this…" Gerard grabs his lab coat's neck and pulls on it, as he's sweating profusely. Whenever he gets nervous he starts sweating profusely. "Start packing up, we're almost done here. I want this whole perimeter to be cleared up as soon as the last drop from that pond leaves through that pipe." Gerard's orders reached the scientist's ears and he ran away, telling his fellow companions of their superior's orders. Gerard left the tent, ignoring once again the saluting soldiers, looking at the entrance of the perimeter.

The barrier was being lifted in order for a limousine to get inside. It drove around the farmhouse and to the middle of the area, where Gerard was standing, really nervous. A black bodyguard left the front of limousine and opened a door in the back, in front of Gerard. From this door, and at a painfully slow pace, a tall slender woman came out. Her hair was blond, just like Gerard's, but she was really tall, standing at two meters and fifteen centimeters. She was wearing a lab coat, just like the scientists, but her camo pants were blue, instead of brown, whilst also wearing high heels.

"Gerard…" She called his name, the short man standing straight and gulping down. "What is the current situation?" As soon as she finished asking, Gerard began talking, making sure that there wasn't a delay between her question and his response. He went through all of the points that the previous scientist had gone through, as well as the many material losses. Her cold face doesn't shift, but her piercing blue eyes do, switching to look at the tent, then at Gerard.

"Useless." She states, taking a few steps forward. "This site should have been cleared hours ago… yet here you all are, wasting our precious time…" Her german accent is strong, incomprehensible for anyone who isn't accustomed to listening to her. "Make sure that those _dummkopf_ are taken to my laboratory… I shall deal with them personally… Now finish this charade at once and bring back this circus with you back to your ridiculous mansion!" She turns around, really angry.

Gerard walks after her. "Wait, Nashandra, I…" She turns around at the mention of her name, flashing her six pokeballs, which she's hiding under her lab coat, directing her hateful eyes at the man of short stature, who feels his sweat freezing on his skin.

"You shall not pronounce that name… ever!" She turns her glare to another direction. "I cannot believe I am related to such… dirt." Her ever sharp tongue attacks the shorter man, who merely stands still and looks at the ground. His sister walks back into her limousine and waits for the door to close, then lowers the window as the driver turns on the engine. "Fifteen minutes. That is all you have to clean up this mess… otherwise you and your team shall take a one way trip to facilities." She states this with a monotone voice, rises the window again and the limousine drives away, back the way it came.

Gerard is left there, speechless, happy he had gotten away from her fury… but scared, and furious. He turns around and starts shouting orders, his screaming is heard from the limousine as it's leaving, and inside, Nashandra wears a delighted smile.

* * *

People tend to say that we have to smile and accept the changes that happen during our lives. Smile and accept. What is not easy to accept is that you are calmly walking through your local park to, all of a sudden, find yourself next to some mansion, be drugged until you fall asleep and then wake up after being dragged into a cell where you wake up isolated.

Tony Ramos, a young boy, was the one that had found himself in this situation. And the things he saw while there had left him at a loss for words. On the one hand, he had seen Pokémon caged, and on the other hand, some he had seen walking around and even one had escorted him to where he was at that moment. He spent weeks isolated with anything done to him. He was fed and those that had him prisoner were making sure he was still alive, as well as doing some tests on him. Aside from the Pokémon, he had seen other boys and girls, tied up to gurneys, unconscious. Some only seemed to be asleep while others had caught his attention due to some… particular characteristics that he found rather… weird.

After the walk through the hallways of that place, the Machoke escorting him pushed the boy into a room and closed the door, it's lock blocking it immediately, leaving Tony alone inside the room. ' _From one cell to another. What the hell do they do in here? And what's with those guys and those-_ ' His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden noise. The boy looked around but it didn't seem as if anything had changed, still there was a hissing sound that remained bugging his ears.

In the room next door, a group of scientists were looking through a one way glass screen, observing the kid in the other room.

"Everything ready?" A well dressed man asked, although his luxurious clothing was covered by a white scientist coat, underneath the which was a white shirt with red buttons, silk trousers and even a black tie. His hair was red and he had blue eyes, with thin glasses.

"Everything is ready, Administrator John, sir. We only have to wait for the subject to fall asl-" The scientist never got to end that sentence.

"Absolutely not. I want him to be wide awake for what's about to happen." The big boss simply said this without lifting his gaze off of the boy. "Stop the gas and begin the procedure on the double." Without waiting any further orders, the scientist at the computers did what he was told, opening the door that connected that observation room with the boy's, who looked at the door to see scientists entering the room, and immediately held him down.

"Hey! What the hell?! What's going on!?" The boy struggled, but he couldn't fight back against the men that tied him down on an operating table, whilst the rest prepared the procedure.

Amongst them one of them was preparing the solution the boy was about to be injected with, and one of them glared at the boy from the corner of his eye, although the boy couldn't notice this because of the gas masks. "Why aren't we waiting until he falls asleep like always? That way we wouldn't have to deal with the headache the screams are going to give us."

"I know, but it's come straight from the boss." The other grabbed the bag that had already been prepared and pressed the tube.

"Bastard… what the hell does he gain from all this?" The other asked whilst the two expelled the air from the the tube and instead filled with a liquid, to then put a needle at the end of it, pressing until a single drop came out of the tip.

"Some say that he likes it… a lot… He likes to hear the subjects scream, screech and plead for help, but those are only rumors. C'mon, we're done here." The first scientist returned to where the boy was being tied down whilst the other picked up everything they had left.

"So he's sadist... Sick bastard." The other muttered under his breath.

"Hey, what the hell is that?!" The only answer he received was the grip the men had on tightening, whilst they held out his arm.

"Hold him down. Don't let him move" Without wasting anymore time, the scientist looked for the main vein and stabbed the needle into his skin, then pressed down on the bag and began injecting the liquid directly into the boy's blood stream. It took ten minutes for the bag to empty, and once it did, the sting was covered and the needle was removed as the scientists left, but Tony was still tied down the table. The effect of the gas had completely vanished and the boy was wide awake once again. Some time passed without anything happening, until the scientist boss entered the room.

"Good evening, Subject 3582957183. Don't even bother telling me your name, I couldn't care less. However, I can tell you that you should feel happy, because you're about to become a part of something far greater than your boring meaningless life. Dreams about becoming a pokémon master, the best there ever was, a trainer, a coordinator, breeder, whatever… all of them are mere child's play. If you're lucky, you'll actually do something of use for the world: create something that will innovate in the black market." He paused. "Of course, if that isn't the case, you'll just end up being another bitch for the arena… And once again, I couldn't care less about where you end up, because the only thing I care about are results. If this succeeds or fails doesn't matter, your life is going to change either way, so… "He started undoing his binds so the boy could move his arms. "Enjoy it as much as you can. It'll hurt plenty, don't worry… Some described it as feeling how every single bone in your body was snapped in half slowly, one by one." He finished his speech and went back to the other room, the door closing behind him and sealing the boy again.

As soon as the door closed, the boy quickly undid all of the binds and got up from the operating table, already fearful and freaking out about what was about to transpire. The scientist wore a maniacal smile on his face as he stood at the other side of the crystal… and simply waited. The other scientist tried to silently type something into the computer…

"No gas. I'll know if you use it." He threatened, which cut the other's protest in half, deleting the command. The boy kept looking for an exist, but there wasn't anything at all, and he couldn't even find the door through the which all the scientist's had left. A single minute passed… and the pain began "Clear the room, I don't want any obstructions." The boss quickly ordered.

The guy at the computer clenched his fist. This was too much, but he didn't dare say anything else… he could be next in that room if he wasn't careful. The table sank back into the ground, leaving the white room bare to the administrator's eyes. Tony of course, didn't notice any of this, as the pain was just so intense that he had closed his eyes and was trying to hold the screams back… but he couldn't, and began crying at the top of his lungs. John's eyes were fixated on the boy, his smile growing wider and wider as sparks began dancing around the boy, which indicated that the procedure was going as expected. He leaned against the crystal, panting heavily as his face became flushed with the screams, the crying, the pleading for the pain to stop... he was enjoying every second of it.

Meanwhile, the changes to Tony's body began, as the pain began focusing in his legs as they took a more animalistic look with yellow fur, changing shapes and bones relocating, the boy's screaming having made his throat already feel sore as his feet grew in size, breaking his trainers and socks as the three fingers in the middle grew larger in size whilst the other two retracted back into his feet. His arms were enveloped in stinging, blinding pain as his finger went through the same process, paw pads forming on his palms and his nails fell out painfully slowly, his skin being covered by yellow fur. However, it was far from over, as it now was the turn for his hair to fall, and once again more fur spread all over his head, whilst his ears became elongated, making the process ever so more agonizing until his ears became like of a canine. The fur spread across the area where he used to have hair, although it now covered his new ears. After so much pain, Tony fell down to the ground unconscious as his spine violently snapped and extended, a small yellow tail with a white tip coming out. Meanwhile, in the observation room, John was panting heavily, and was extremely sweaty.

"Another failure... " He regained his composure. "Wake him up." His orders were directed to the room's administrator, who typed a command quickly and another gas filled the room, even though he could barely feel anything beneath the numbing pain that had spread across his body. As he woke up, he could sense a different smell, but the pain was too much for him to feel anything, albeit it was disappearing extremely slowly. The boy's legs and arms felt weird, and once he looked at his feet and tried to remove his ripped trainers and socks, his eyes opened wide as plates.

"What… what is this?!" He got up, now mortified. He then noticed the mirror at the end of the room, recognizing the pointy fur, but he was far too scared to think straight. That face of pain, fear but overall realization that his life was over was enough for John to groan, lean back on his chair and pull out a cigarette, lighting it on fire.

"Prepare this one for transport." He said, then immediately three scientists went into the room and grabbed him before he could run away. A scientist grabbed a pair of scissors and cut his clothes off, ignoring the boy's protests, and then grabbed some sort of handheld machine that he grabbed the boy's ear with, pressing the trigger. Tony let out a scream of pain whilst the boss scientist smiled and chuckled, not noticing the disgusted looks his colleagues were giving him. Tony looked at the tag hanging from his ears and screamed out loud in fear and denial as he read it:

"Subject 3582957183. Failure."

Only after he was carried away John let out a sigh, the kid's screams still echoing. "Lock him up and shut him up. I want the next test subject in the room yesterday." As he said this, a scientist grabbed a gas bottle and ran out of the room, and after a few seconds the boy's screams stopped. "Alter the formula, there has to be a damn quantity that gives us what we want without those damn secondary effects… And I want a visual recompilation of every single one of the next subjects, and every scream must be recorded, and I want it **now**." With that last order, which didn't leave the lead scientist of that room any space to reply, the administrator got up and left the room.

* * *

"I'm so booooooooooooooored." Lucy said. She was laying on the sofa, her head hanging upside down and looking at the TV which was showing a random action movie that Nox had insisted they saw. It was exciting, sure, but it was all explosions and fighting, just noise and she couldn't do anything at all. She prefered it when she could interact or play a game with others, but what she really, really wanted to do, was run. She missed running a lot, even if it had been just an entire day of being stuck in Dust's body. Besides her, Zed had his eyes stuck between the pages of a book, but he wasn't making that much progress, since he kept getting distracted between the television and his mate's interruptions.

And speaking of them, the Shinx was so bored she decided to bug him a little bit more, moving her foot and tapping his side, trying to get him to look at her. It worked, and the Shinx in a Riolu's body simply winked. He sighed and returned to his reading… but was once again, promptly interrupted as she kicked the underside of the book he was reading, scaring him and making him lose track of both where he was and the number of the page, the book shutting in his paws. He looked at her, angry. "You know, just because you're bored doesn't mean you get to bug me Lucy." He said, but she just stuck her tongue out and giggled, returning to her original position for just a few more seconds…

"I'm soooooo boooooooored!" Her whining was getting on everyone's nerves, especially Jake, who was trying to focus on what he was reading. It was a book about myths and legends of the Archipelago, but just as he expected he wasn't getting too much verified and reliable information out of it, just vague mentions. He decided to invest a little bit of time on confronting Lucy, raising an eyebrow as he did so.

"Why do you not try and find something useful to do, such as helping us uncover the solution to our predicament?" His suggestion fell on deaf ears however, the fighting type looking at him.

"I could easily fall asleep reading a book, so I wouldn't be of much use there either." She wasn't lying, as she honestly found reading books boring. There were more interesting and fun ways to invest your free time and learn stuff about the world, like going out there and explore, and run around…

She really missed running around.

Another explosion fired off inside the TV, followed by Nox's shouts of hype, who was sitting on a sleeping Lucario's lap. Even in a different body, Serge's laziness got the best of him and forced him to drift off to sleep as soon as he sat down in a couch. This time around though, his position seemed extremely unhealthy, as he was laying on the couch and leaning to the right, the armchair's arm being the only thing keeping him from falling to the floor, his mouth wide open and snoring softly.

"You know? If it's so boring for you in here you could go outside and try to find something to do." Dust told her. He himself looked bored as hell but still he was reading a book that he thought could contain some info on what they were looking for. "Dunno, do what you want to do, get used to the body or something. If you keep lying down you are going to get fat and thus, surely slower." He added to then go back to the book.

"I already know how to walk in this body, but whenever I try running I have to go at a snail's pace… your body sucks, Dust!" She faked some emotions in her tone, but she did mean it when she said that she wasn't enjoying her out-of-body experience.

"Well it's not like I like a nose that is as useful as a human's, but at least speed can be trained and improved, you just need time and right now you are doing nothing and losing it." He simply stated while his eyes tried to keep on the line he was reading.

Lucy laughed. "Wow, you're really hopeful… I don't think you'd ever match my speed with your body, even if you trained day and night for the rest of you life. And besides, it's not my problem. Not my body, and I'm not about to do your dirty work. Besides, took me long enough to get the smell of sweat out of this fur, in fact, instead of criticizing me, you should praise me for how well I'm taking care of your body." Lucy chimed.

"Yeah… Eating and being lazy all day. Might as well start to call you Serge instead." He said, not really thinking that was taking good care of a body that wasn't hers… not like he was trying much himself on the training side, but at least he was trying to give it back to her.

"Naaah, he's way worse than I am and you know it." She motions her head towards the Lucario. "Besides, some of us got lucky that their bodies can allow them to fight similarly to how they did before… if I scurry away like a scared cub it won't be my reputation that's being ruined. And just as a friendly reminder…" She tapped her armband once again, then hushed Dust. She knew he was right, but those few pokémon from the group that could fight could easily take care of whatever came in their way, at least in that world.

Dust was about to counter her that those that were lucky enough for that still had to get to know what they could do and their stamina, but shut up seeing the gesture once again. Too often was she using that to get at him and to keep him where she wanted. "You wait and we'll see what happens when this is fixed." He muttered to himself, deciding on getting some sort of pay back over all of this.

"Luca." Came Clara's voice from the living room's entrance to the kitchen. "You have been lazing around these past two days. Why don't you come over and help me get dinner ready?" The woman asked the Lucario, Luca herself looking at Serge intently.

At first, Serge didn't react, but Nox eventually hit his abdomen and woke her up, swallowing a small drop of drool that was coming from her maw. "Uh… Wha…" He looks at the Vulpix on his lap, who points at the human, and the Lucario immediately understands, standing up straight so quickly that Nox didn't have time to react and fell to the floor. Serge apologized quickly and walked over to the kitchen. "Alright, I totally got this!"

"Someone please tell me he knows how to cook." Luca asked the rest, fearing what might happen in the kitchen.

She didn't receive an immediate answer, but inside the kitchen the former Pidgeot found himself facing a table full of Kitchen utilities, then exchanged a nervous glance with Clara, who nodded in approval. Serge's mind was racing, he swallowed and looked at what he had in front of him: A cabbage, vegetables, meat… He stared at the last one, specifically, and felt his face being drained of color… It was a featherless avian torso with legs, which one would've identified as chicken, but instead thought it was a fellow Pidgey.

Serge fainted and fell backwards, slamming into the floor like a brick with a loud "thud". His wore a maniacal grin, his eyes slightly rolled backwards.

"Luca!" Clara yelled going to the Lucario and trying to wake her up again. The named left whatever she was doing to go to the kitchen just to see that scene in front of her… and automatically a wing went for her face as she blushed.

"Oh, Arceus…" She let out.

Zed got up from his spot, sighing and walking over to the kitchen. He faked shock and grabbed the Lucario, utilizing Eric's incredible strength and carrying the Pidgeot back to the armchair where he had been sleeping seconds ago. After that, he went over to Hadrim, who was in his own body. "Can you come with me? That way, Clara won't be that confused when Eric starts cooking like Zed."

"Uhm Sure." Hadrim nodded and stood, leaving his book where he was after closing it and followed the Riolu to the Kitchen.

Luca remained by the door, and decided to just tag along, try and get her mind of the little… incident that has just transpired. Clara saw her out of the corner of her eye, and immediately dashed forward in between the bird and the food on the kitchen countertop. "Wait! Don't come in!" She knew that if the Pidgeot saw the chicken they would most likely freak out… but what she didn't know, unfortunately, is that it had already happened.

Luca looked at the woman but decided to step back and go back to the living room, the previous Lucario was getting angry with all of this, and now she couldn't do what she liked most. "Just fucking great!" And this was how Hadrim got one poké out of his debt, but also how she went back to where she was and got back to reading her book.

Shade and Radius looked at her for a moment, doubting if they should go to her or something. Natalie also looked at her, deciding to let her be and keep with her book. Even Dark decided to just keep searching for a solution to this. The rest of the afternoon went by without any further incidents, albeit dinner was extremely silent in the pokémon side, mainly because they all had to sit in weird positions so that the humans didn't suspect, something that had happened the previous day. There was also the fact that Serge, who in Luca's body, was glaring daggers at everyone, specially at Luca, looking carefully at whoever went close to her. He was really concerned about his body now. More than ever. And because of this he had noticed something that not once had crossed his mind: he was absolutely gorgeous.

Dinner came and went, and with it some of the pokémon in the house went to sleep. For some it had been an exhausting day of looking through books, for others, training had been their main worry… and for others, they hadn't done anything at all during the day. Either way, at the moment in the living room one would find a Sneasel sitting on the couch, and a small Eevee rolled up and sitting on the armchair, both of them reading without showing any signs of stopping. Aside from that there was an Espeon in the pokémon bed near one of the corners of the living room, submerged in a book with another Eevee with familiar blue eyes by his side, but she was slowly falling asleep, her eyelids drooping ever so often. On other side there was a Houndour that was lying by a wall with yet another book of his own and really focused into reading, to the point that he had forgotten what he was looking for, there was also a male Eevee lying in an armchair, reading calmly himself without any signs that he was going to fall asleep anytime soon. And last but no less, a Zorua was focused intently, devouring yet another book after, around fifteen open books resting near her. Aside from Natalie everyone seemed to be wide awake. Jake, however, was having problems.

"Shade, you and your damn body are impeding my progress!" The Sneasel in an Eevee body exclaimed, getting really frustrated to be getting sleepy that early. He needed to progress and find a solution to their situation as soon as possible, lest something nefarious could happen to his body.

"Dah! Quit it and go get a cup of coffee or something and get off my nerves. You're starting to be worst than a fly around the ear." She snapped at him, trying not to be **too** rude with him… But yeah he was starting to rub her where it shouldn't be done… That and something new to her mind that made her snap much more easier.

"I would, only if your body didn't violently react with caffeine. And not that it would help much anyways, since the exhaustion would be carried over until the effects are gone… What I need is a body that doesn't get tired from the most minimal of encephalic excitement. My body, to be precise." He says this by giving Elly a condescending glare, but she's too absorbed in her reading to notice him.

"Well, I'm sorry for not having spent my life in a-" She started.

"Okay, stop it you two!" Radius was the one to butt in and interrupt his sister. "You want to recover your body? Then stop complaining and get to research. I thought you didn't like to lose time, which with this complaining is what you are doing." The Eevee in a Houndour's body told to the previously Sneasel.

"I have a mouth, and I shall express my opinion with it if I so desire! Now, if you will excuse me, I will attempt to stall this body's eventual biological shut down for as long as I can." With this he goes back to reading, but not before Elly raises her eyes from the book, sighing.

"Jake, try to be empathic. You're not the only one who is in this mess, and we all want to have our bodies just as badly as you do, so don't take it out on Radius or Shade." She scolded the former Sneasel lightly, but he didn't retort, instead focusing on his lecture. He did acknowledge Elly's words, but he didn't say much.

"Has anyone found something?" Dark asked after a bit of silence, getting his eyes out of letter filled pages and blinking a bit, also yawning deeply. "Ow. So it feels like this to be tired? So good." He commented after that.

"Nope." Elly said, tossing the book she was reading aside and picking up another one from her pile.

"Negative." Jake answered, not saying anything else. continuing his work.

Zed and Lucy had gone off to sleep already, Serge had been sleeping for quite some time now, and Nox wasn't there, probably somewhere with Luna keeping an eye on him, as she had sworn the day before and had been doing since then, she even stood awake 'til late in the morning the previous night not wanting to give the now Vulpix any time alone to do… things he shouldn't even think of. Natalie couldn't avoid falling asleep over her book some minutes back and was slightly snoring away, her head on top of the pages she's been reading. Elly had noticed this and couldn't help but giggle at the Eevee's position, finding it amusing because it was her body.

Just then, another Eevee came out from the kitchen, balancing a tray of berries on their head. It was Eric, who had stopped reading for the time being and had decided to give them something to snack on. A few berries couldn't hurt, but the problem was that he wasn't used to this new body yet, so he didn't stop balancing back and forth, some berries falling to the floor and rolling away. He managed to get them to the table and picked up all that had fallen, Elly looking at him from behind the book she was reading. Eric went over to her and tried to climb onto the couch, grabbing with her paws, but eventually slid off and landed on her rear. Elly noticed this and giggled, before stopping for a while and helping him up.

The former Riolu was about to complain, but didn't say anything as his mate helped him up then he sat besides her, snuggling up right next to the Sneasel, who in turn got as close to the Eevee as she could. It was a strange image, both Jake and Emily snuggled up right next to eachother. Eric looked at Natalie, who had fallen asleep, and smiled. "Well, that certainly reminds me of someone…" He said, Elly looking at him and smiling. He was right, since he had surprised her quite a couple times in that same position as she had been reading way too much.

"Well, this is quite the weird situation…" She leans closer and rubs the back of the Eevee's ears, making the former Riolu tremble and purr.

"Ok, now I know why you loved this so much…" He said, Elly now beginning to giggle uncontrollably. The sound of laughter leaving Jake's mouth was absolutely alien to everyone in that house, but she didn't care, she was having fun rubbing her mate behind the ears, Eric instinctively pushing against her hand. "Hmmm… alright, next time we do this after we get back to our bodies, I'm going to make you enjoy this thoroughly… Don't stop." He quickly muttered before she removed her hand, making the former Eevee chuckle.

"Well, c'mon we have to keep going." She said, removing her hand, Eric understanding it. He leaned forward and grabbed a pecha berry with his maw, giving it to Elly, then taking an Oran Berry himself.

Not to break their mood, Dark stood silent for a moment and tried to keep reading, even when his eyes closed and his head fell to the sides every now and them, until the previously insomniac Zoroark fell asleep laying on the bed in a corner of the living room, right by Natalie's side.

Elly couldn't help but look at the bed, then quickly looked away, focusing on her reading whilst Eric cuddled even closer, looking at the TV. Right now they were seeing a concert that was playing music, an ambiance that Jake loved thoroughly and helped him focus even harder, same with Elly, albeit she could focus in almost any environment if the book was interesting. What made her lose focus was when Elly heard snoring right besides her, noticing that after a few minutes after having come up to her and snuggled together, her mate had fallen asleep due to Emily's rather young body.

In fact, sleep and tiredness was slowly spreading across the entire room.

"It's late… we should all get some sleep and continue tomorrow." Hadrim said, blinking a bit and closing his book letting out a sigh and looking at Natalie and her book for a moment to then go to her and try to make her lift her head to take the book from beneath her and close it, putting it to a side, doing the same with Dark's. Luca was already at their room, already asleep after dinner, Radius was with his paws against a wall, snoring, Luna was trying to keep watching Nox wherever they went to and Shade closed her book too. She stretched a bit and went to her brother to lay by his side and go to sleep as well.

Elly shut her book and left it at her right, hugging the Eevee besides her and closing her eyes, opening them once as she heard something shuffle to her left. It was Jake, who was still reading, and this time, his eyes were wide open. He was completely silent, but he was flipping through pages like a maniac and murmuring something to himself. She shut her eyes, shrugging it off, but the former Sneasel kept up his endless muttering, when all of a sudden…

" **Eureka!** " He triumphantly exclaimed at the top of his lungs, almost tossing the book he had on the armchair with him, but still scaring out of sleep every single creature in the immediate vicinity, and of course, inside the house. Eric and Elly jumped out of their tiredness and looked at him, noticing the wide smirk on his face.

"You found it?!" Eric asked, scrambling to his feet and running over to where Jake was, Elly doing the same. Eric jumped onto the armchair, hitting his face into it, but he didn't pay much attention to that, looking at the book the tactician had between his paws. Soon, the other members of Team Star joined them, including Emily, who looked rather annoyed because of the fact she couldn't properly sleep because of the Zoroark's insomnia.

They weren't the only ones that woke up. Natalie jumped to her feet all of a sudden, startling Dark as well, Shade couldn't even fall asleep before this happened, poor Hadrim didn't even got to the bed before going back out to the living room, surprisingly, Luca kept snoring away in the room. And Dust had woken up too but he only looked at them from his laying down position on one of the couches. "What is it, now?" Dark and Hadrim asked at around the same time, wide awake now.

"Jake found the answer." Elly informed them, Jake nodding enthusiastically.

"Yes, precisely. Allow me to read…" He cleared his throat. "... amongst the strangest of pokémon of the world is Manaphy, a legendary pokémon said to have the ability to interchange the minds of pokémon and humans until it wishes, or restore the effects of other swaps with it's antennae. This legendary is said to live inside the Temple of the Seas. The temple is said to move with the currents of the sea, **however** sources claim that one legendary pokémon knows of it's exact location at all times! It is none other than Leopold Lugia, master of the sea currents!" Jake looks at them. "And if we go to look for Leopold…" He flips pages and points at a paragraph. "Right here it says that around this time of the year Leopold comes to the islands!" He resumes the information compiled in that paragraph.

"Does this text gives any clues as to where he could be?" Dark asked, after all the region **is** an archipelago so there's water all around.

"Jake, please, let me read that." Hadrim asked the Eevee and took the book himself, searching and flipping some pages until he found was he was looking for. "During Spring, the sightings of Leopold tend to augment around Zalkar Island" He read. "That's the neighbour Island." He commented, raising his head from the book. "It's just a few hours ship trip to the east."

"That's it?!" Eric asked, expecting a much more arduous journey.

"That's close! We can set out tomorrow and come back here in our bodies in less than two days!" Elly exclaimed. The members of Team Star cheered, knowing that soon they would have their bodies back.

Dark on his side was also smiling, happy with the idea of recovering his body, at the same time that having a bit of distaste for not going to be able to enjoy the feeling of tiredness for long, but whatever. However there were two more things in his mind. One was that guy that tried to kill him back home and the other… simple words that his writer's mind got for him. " _This will be easy. Too easy to be like that._ " Even if he tried to erase that thoughts from his head both came back for some reason but he just ended up ignoring them.

"Well, now we have a plan. Everyone get some rest and tomorrow we will be on our way." Had said with a smile on the muzzle. Everyone cheering.

"Guys! It's late! Keep it down!" Came Daniel's voice from the upper floor, scolding them for the noise. They all started to get comfy wherever they could. At the moment allowing themselves to be a bit lazy to go to their rooms and getting ready to sleep.

However, before that the annoyed Emily walked over to Dark. "Dark… I can't fall asleep. How do you even manage to close your eyes in here?" She asked, extremely confused as to why she just wouldn't fall asleep or didn't feel that tired.

Dark looked at Emily for a moment, it never ceased to make him feel weird that he was watching at himself. "I told you this morning to take the sleeping medicine or you wouldn't be able to sleep tonight." He said to her calmly, standing again and taking her to the upper floor. However, Dust saw this and decided to take care of her himself. He went to them and told Dark to go back with Natalie, Dark agreed, trusting the now Shinx and letting her with him, going back to Natalie and to dreamland. Dust took Emily downstairs to his room and there he tried to help her fall asleep. It was a long night for them both but eventually she managed to grip sleep and he followed her suit, laying by her side.

* * *

The moon was at it's peak, and inside of the TV Set not a soul could be heard. It was located in the fourth floor of a six story building, and in the third floor there was a security room, in the which was a security guard, reading the newspaper. The scoop that had called his attention was one that talked about the seismic movements that had shook the isles since the last month or two, as well as some other natural disasters, and some expert's opinions on these events. However, unbeknownst to him, there was another… presence, inside the building.

The cloaked figure had teleported into the building after looking through a window. The infiltration had gone smoothly, since it hadn't encountered any guards up to that point. It slowly walked around, finding its way through the darkness, dim lights guiding its way towards the stairs that lead higher up. The trail had lead it there, but it had been side tracked because of that city's complex structures, however it was yet to be noticed by any living creature, be it a "human", as it heard those bipedal creatures call themselves, a pokémon, or one of those soulless animals.

It walked up to the second floor and traversed through it, the only sound in the hallways being the noise its feet made as they hit the floor. " _Infiltration was successful, and we have avoided detection so far… let's make sure it stays that way."_ The creature told itself.

" _Awww, and here I was hoping for a party… you're such a bore… Either way, this is a lot of trouble for getting these guys, isn't it?"_ Another voice responded from inside its head, not responding immediately, looking at the lights above it. The arrows pointed down the hallway, and it followed the instructions and reached the third floor.

" _No amount of trouble will be "a lot", if it means getting revenge."_ The creature responded, keeping its cool as it walk past the locked security room, the guard inside unaware of its presence.

" _I thought that this whole thing was business? We were hired to kill them, weren't we?"_ The voice asked. They had just asked two questions, but the creature's patience was already running thin.

" _Idiot… we have more reasons to kill them… have you forgotten? Or maybe you never knew in the first place, you delusional killer."_ The cloaked figure got to the last set of stairs, rising up to the fourth floor. " _If you stopped thinking about killing you would most likely understand what was going on in the world around us."_ The creature got to the fourth floor landing, and from this point began following the trail.

" _What can I say? I get bored really quickly when you start talking… And besides, that place was grimy and dirty, and so was our "client", so why even bother listening to what you two were saying? Either way… yeah, the memories are coming back… and so is the anger."_ The voice says these last words with a slightly darker tone than usual.

There is a period of silence between the two, during the which the creature arrives to the entrance of the TV set. It extends an extremity, and knob begins turning itself, enveloped in a purplish aura… however, the door doesn't open. It was locked with a key… but there was no reason to worry. With the same psychic powers, he reached into the door's lock, then opened it as if he were using the key, activated the mechanism… and the door unlocked. and opened by itself.

It walked in, looking around. The set was in complete darkness, but the emergency lights scattered about gave out enough light to make navigation possible without bumping into the furniture. It looked like a normal television set, but he knew that almost four weeks ago, Team Star in it's entirety, plus an unwanted stowaway in the form of an annoying Eevee kit. Either way, they weren't there now, so it had to find clues. " _He would probably be laughing at us right now… That laugh of his… you remember it, don't you?"_

Oh yes, it could remember it clearly. In fact, it could hear it clear as day at that moment, whilst it closed its eyes, the furniture floating around him. It could remember its laughter clearly, the putrid smell of that excuse of a bar filling its nostrils once more, the pointy cushions on the which it had been sitting at that moment poking it once more, the sound of…

* * *

 **Six months ago - Somewhere in Team Star's world**

Laughter, his laughter, which echoed in the entire bar, over the shouts of surprise that the Lopunny's and Machamp's timely demise had brought. The pokémon sitting in front of it found something it had just said hilarious… whilst it remained sitting still with the utmost seriousness. However, he kept on roaring with laughter until he began coughing, at which point he stopped, taking a breath before chuckling.

"Wow… you're, umm… Extremely good, so to say. You have a future as a comedian, that I can tell… albeit I doubt you'll get to live long enough to milk it for all it's worth if you keep saying those names around these parts. I mean… you need some serious guts... That, or be really confident in your abilities… or just plain stupid." He was taking this whole thing as a joke, but it was as serious as it could be.

"I don't know what you find so funny about this conversation… For starters, they're still out there, hunting down all the outlaws they're sent after... " It looks around. "Soon enough this sad excuse of a bar will be completely empty... and even you will be thrown into a cell… unless we do something." It proposes, the pokémon in front of it raising his eyes.

"Let me give you a piece of advice, buddy…" He coughs, clearing his throat. "Give up. It's useless to fight them unless you want to receive the greatest beating of your life. Half of the pokémon in here can attest for that…" He looks around, getting glares from many of the outlaws inside of that building. "Besides, they're way out of our leagues… including yours. They're something from out of this world, pal, insanely strong… Although you wouldn't know until you experience it first hand…" He starts talking, but it places its hand on the table.

"But we have." It states firmly, silencing him. "I have tasted their raw, untamed power… and it's driven me to the point of insanity. And when I reached that point… I gained a new power…" It looks at its hands. "And I have harvested it… trained it…" It clenches them into fists. "Mastered it. If they were to face me at this point… they would know my wrath." Its words reached his ears, but he was still unconvinced.

"Alright… let's say I buy it… Tell me… Why haven't you gone and killed them yet? Or at the very least, attacked them?" His' was a good question, but it had already planned ahead for this type of interrogation.

"They say that if you're good at something… you never do it for free. And besides… it is sort of personal, as I have stated before." He opens his mouth, but it cuts him off again. "And before you ask, it is not money what I want… but your collaboration. You see… I am creating a group, so to say… and I need leaders." It points at the pokémon in front of him. "And you, my friend, are perfect for this… after all, you have come face to face with the dark one, and even went to work for them…" This time, however, his face goes dark and leans forward.

"How the hell do you know that?! I have never told anyone!" He is livid, furious, and about to snap at it… but instead it simply laughs.

"Oh, do you not remember me, or my voice?" He looks at it, confused, then shakes his head. It smirks as it grabs the tip of its hood. "Then perhaps this shall jog your memory." It pulls the hood down and reveals its identity to him, whose eyes go wide open in surprise.

"You…" He smirks as well. "Aaaah… So that's what you meant… Now it makes sense." As he says this, it pulls its hood up again.

"Here is my proposition: I, shall go forth and rid the world of Team Star, or at the very least their daring leaders… and if I succeed, you shall join my efforts. I believe you already know what your place in all of this is?" Its question is answered by a quick nod, albeit he doesn't quite know all of it, he has a faint idea. "In that case… it is settled." It extends a hand, and he extends his, both of them shaking. His skin… it is cold… extremely cold, like a corpse's. Cold… cold like…

* * *

"The trail…" It speaks now as it has come to a sudden realization, all the furniture in the room settling down with a thud.

" _What? What about it?"_ The voice asks, a little too cheery for what it has just discovered. In fact, just hearing that voice makes the creature tremble with anger.

"The trail… it's gone cold… cold… there is no sign of where they have gone afterwards… they're not here… and there is no trail!" It grabs the foldable chair besides it with its hands and tosses it with all its might, hitting the other side, crashing into a camera and toppling it to the ground, a loud noise resonating inside the building.

" _Woah! You need to calm down there… besides, I told you this would happen already. Guess there's only one way to lure them out, isn't there?"_ The voice was aware of this from the very beginning… and this fact only makes the creature even more furious, although he didn't need to look at the owner of that voice to know that at that very moment they were wearing a wide, sick grin on their face. Unbeknownst to him, however, a camera is recording the scene, and through that camera a panicking night guard is watching as the creature rages about, wreaking havoc inside the set. It finally calms down, and the night guard wants to get a good look at it… and accidentally presses the zoom in button.

The camera up on the fourth floor makes a soft noise, but with the deadly silence hanging in the air it is easily heard by the creature, who sharply turns around to stare at the source. Its eyes lock with the camera's lenses, and consequently, with the night guard's, who trembles in his seat. The creature raises a hand and makes a "come here" gesture. A snap is heard and the feed is cut, leaving the man trembling in his spot. Whilst he scrambles to get a hold of the phone to call reinforcements and grab a gun, the creature is destroying the camera, but notices that there are cables tracing back the way it came, and by process of elimination, the location from the which he had been spotted. It quickly ran down the hallway, following the cables and descending to the third floor, until it stopped in front of the door.

Inside, the guard could hear the steps, and he kept a hold of the phone, praying for his life as he waited to get response. The phone kept beeping, trying to get on the line… but it seemed to be taking an eternity. The steps had stopped just outside the door, and then, all of a sudden, he heard how they walked away… until they weren't heard, followed by a strange noise just outside. Curious, but at the same time deadly afraid, he crouched down and looked through the keyhole… for a single instant, he thought that the emergency lights had gone out, but after he blinked it all went back to normal. He let out a sigh of relief after finding that there was no one there, and when he turned around to grab the phone and call the cops…

There it was. Inside the room. With him. It had heard him scrambling inside, and it had noticed the keyhole. It knew that if he looked through it and saw it outside he wouldn't open the door, so it walked away, to make him think that it had disappeared… but then it teleported right in front of the door and waited until it looked, then simply teleported in after learning the arrangement of the room's furniture. Now they were both inside the same, confined space.

The man opened his mouth to let out a blood curling scream, but it was silenced as the creature pressed its hands against his head, pushing him down into the swivel chair. His mind was weak, and it had no trouble going inside and scanning his memories. It rapidly learned of what happened inside that building daily, but had transpired there a month ago, and how it was all recorded on a tape, which was located inside a closed cabinet to their left. It also learned of the man's life… but that information was useless to it… and now, it would also useless to the man.

As it finished the scrambling of the man's memories, it left his mind, grabbed the key from the man's shirt and went over to open the cabinet, leaving the man sitting on that chair in a vegetative state. That night guard, called Mike, was an honest family man, with a wife and two children, a boy and a girl. The morning after this whole incident his colleagues would find him inside that room, screaming without any rhyme or reason. A visit to a psychiatrist wouldn't yield any results, but his reactions were similar to those of senile dementia, where he forgot and remembered fragments of his life, yet forgot how to do basic motor functions, or his family altogether, attacking them out of sheer fear.

This would break the family apart, and the man would be sent to a mental institution where he would die alone and mad, with figments of his memory coming back to haunt him, remembering the dreadful night when he had met that creature, screaming in his nightmares. The creature pulled out the tape, and forcefully tossed the man and the chair out of the way. That miserable pile of flesh was of no importance to it. It just cared for what was inside of that tape.

It put the tape inside the player, and began pressing buttons, just as it had learned from the memories, until it reached the time it wished. It waited for a few minutes as the program started, and shortly after… a flash of light blinded the camera, and the next instant all eight of its targets were there. A smile grew on its face, hoping that it would get a clue of where they were now, or how they had gotten out…

But those hopes vanished, just like Eric and his friends did on the video. Just like that. Gone. It rewinded the recording and looked again. The same thing happened. It rewinded again, foolishly hoping that one time the outcome would be different…

" _Repeating the same acts over and over again, expecting a different outcome… that, is the definition of insanity…"_ The voice inside it's head chanted happily… _Sickeningly_ happy. And it made it furious. It made it livid. It made it go mad with anger, with anguish… but most of all, with frustration. After rewinding the recording seventeen times, it snapped, shouted and screamed like a madman as it summoned two psychic blades and began slamming them against the monitors and recording devices, causing such a large amount of destruction that one would wonder if it had been the man that lay right now on the floor, his brain completely destroyed by the creature's brutal proving, or something much more powerful.

Either way, once it was done raging, it calmed down slightly, and looked at one of the monitors, where it showed the back door of the building. The next instant, the creature appeared in that spot. Having destroyed the recording equipment, no one would ever be able to know what had transpired there that night, and having conveniently covered its trail to near perfection… the creature simply walked away into the night, devising another plan to hunt down its marks.

* * *

 **Yikes… yeah, the tone of this chapter seemed to be light and somewhat funny… and then all of that happened. We're jerks, we know. Anyways, now that we have reached this point, the main plot of the story is slowly going to start to move forward, so from this point onward things are going to start getting interesting. There are still going to be funny moments, it's not going to be all serious, but we feel like there's been more than enough filler up to this point, and is about time we give you guys something to chew on, so to say.**

 **Asides from that, thank you all for reading this collab and we will see you in the next one. Take care!**


	8. Chapter 7 - Setting Sail

**Alright, shorter chapter today, mainly because we're going to be trying to release shorter chapters more often so that you guys aren't left without anything for far too long. We have to both write and translate these chapters simultaneously, hence why it takes so long to release them.**

 **That being said, hope you enjoy this chapter, there are definitely some funny moments stashed into it.**

 **Btw, before I forget and in case you guys get confused, here's a list of the characters and the bodies they're in:**

 **Mind - Body:**

 **Eric - Emily**

 **Elly - Jake**

 **Zed - Eric**

 **Lucy - Dust**

 **Serge - Luca**

 **Jake - Shade**

 **Nox - Luna**

 **Emily - Dark**

 **Dark - Hadrim**

 **Natalie - Elly**

 **Radius - Nox**

 **Shade - Radius**

 **Dust - Lucy**

 **Hadrim - Zed**

 **Luca - Serge**

 **Luna - Natalie**

 **Chapter 7**

 **Setting Sail**

Hadrim awoke early that morning, albeit he wasn't the only one, Dark waking up extremely early too, although the Espeon had already been sitting at the kitchen and munching on a juicy red apple… of the which he had grown fond of in the last few days.

"Morning Dark." Hadrim saluted the pokémon he couldn't possibly forget who was inside his own body, and that apparently shared his tastes.

"Good morning, uh… Hadrim?" The other asked, trying to remember who was in Zed's body after the last couple days. "Sorry, it's not easy to relate a different name with a face you already have memorized with another…"

"With enough luck, all this will be over soon." As Hadirm said this, he jumped up onto the table. "I still remember when my body was this small… maybe it's something you just don't forget." He approached the fruit basket and grabbed another apple whilst he looked for the TV remote.

"There's not much to watch, and news aren't that interesting." The previous Zoroark tossed the control in Hadrim's general direction, the Zorua turning on the television and switching to the news channel, which… had a static screen with the words "Technical Difficulties, please stand by" all over it.

"That's odd..." Had commented since this didn't happen too often. He pressed a button on the remote and changed the channel once more, switching to another news broadcast, where a policeman was being carried inside an ambulance, which drove away whilst a doctor's voice was heard in the background, describing what had happened to the man and then the screen changed back to Sara Ortiz and Randalf Martinez.

"We are all deeply sorry for Mike, he was a great man and a great father… His family will be desolated. As for the TV set, it will remain closed until further notice, and we hope our companions in Channel Six will soon recover from this devastating blow." The tv anchorwoman finished the scoop.

"Well… that explains it, I guess." Hadrim said this with a thoughtful look, getting a bad feeling about this.

"Well, now we move away from this tragic event over at TV set last night in Nexus Isle, and we move over to Fierna Island, from where we have received the following videos." After this, images and clips of the lava raising up to the sky are shown. "As you can seen, Oniric Volcano, which was thought to have been asleep for centuries, erupted all of a sudden, and after this…" Black smoke rose out of the chimney, flames surging everywhere as a shape rose up and towards the lava, which was then absorbed. Whilst whatever that was flew away, the anchorman was explaining. "As you can see, something ascends up to the lava, absorbs it into what seems to be a staff and then flies away. Could we be witnessing the discovery of an entire new species of Pokémon?" The images finish on one freeze frame where the creature is being zoomed in and showcased, allowing them to see that it looked like a mixture of species.

After this what they showed was a series of images of the inactive volcano, albeit the crater was filled with lava, which had remained in it's place after the ordeal, whilst a reporter whose name had been lost beneath all the noise was explaining that there was nothing pointing towards any new eruptions anytime soon. However, scientists and geologists would remain to investigate the reasons for these events, fire pokémon standing nearby in case things got out of hand.

The rest of the news that were broadcasted on the TV just were pulled to the back of those watching the TV, Dark and Hadrim stunned for what they just saw, apples left half eaten in front of them. But they hadn't been the only ones to see those images. Just as Dark and Hadrim had been waking up **extremely** early, so did Eric and Elly. Obviously the two had been sleeping together in the same bed, something that Jake had disagreed with heavily, to the point he had threatened to put himself in between, but eventually he backed away after everyone in the team chastised him for acting just like Luna, triggering a rather verbal response from the both of them.

They got up after laying in bed for a few seconds, and after deciding to let their friends sleep just a bit longer, they both went down the stairs, Elly hanging onto the railing bars whilst Eric crawled down the steps, and once they got down to the living room they discovered almost the entirety of the Kaiser family pokémon sleeping right there, sprawled across the floor and couches. The sound of voices coming from the kitchen lead them to the aforementioned room, and it was there where they witnessed what both Dark and Hadrim had been watching so intently, and they too, were shocked.

"What… the hell… was that?" Elly was confused, questioning if what had just been shown in the screen was real or if it was just one of those "series" or "Reality TV".

"T-the news." Dark let out the first thing that came to his mind, his eyes still on the TV to then shake his head. "Holy… what?" He was… taken aback by what was shown. Wanting to see it again. If that was a video sent to the news then it surely will be on Poké-tube.

"That's the strangest thing I have seen in my whole life…" Hadrim said himself, turning to look at the Sneasel and Eevee.

"That did not look good at all… Was it nearby?" Eric asked, looking at the living room to check if everyone was still asleep and there, an uneasy feeling inside of his body. How could anyone feel completely calm after seeing something like that and hearing it was true? "That looked like something that could've happened back in our w- Where we come from." The former Riolu quickly corrected himself, thinking he had dodged a bullet.

Elly shivered at that thought and its implications, but shook her head, clearing her head of them. "It doesn't concern us, at least at the time it doesn't… now we have more urgent matters to attend, like getting our bodies back. Then we'll worry about that, if we need to." Elly felt something deep inside of her that was telling her that they were eventually going to get involved in all of that... but she just didn't know why.

"Don't worry, Fierna Island is at the other corner of the region." Hadrim said, trying to push this thing to the back of his head, as well as the rest of the news broadcast. "Want some breakfast?" He offered them from on top of the table, an offer both of the pokémon accepted, and soon their friends joined them in the kitchen to gather their strength for the day ahead of them.

After them, Radius and Shade, then Dust, who didn't came alone, Emily was with him while he held a little medicine cylinder with his tail and was insisting on her taking a pill from it trying to keep a low volume of voice so he didn't wake anyone up.

"But I don't wanna! They're too hard and they taste horrible." She complained and whimpered, grabbing a couple berries with her claws and crunching them with her new fangs. She was growing to like this new body, although there was one tiny, minor inconvenience that just ruined the whole experience for her: She couldn't fall asleep.

"That's why you take them with a bit of water so the pill goes down easily." He said to her. "Do you really want to have more problems going to sleep today again?" He added, hoping that this convinced her to take it.

"No! Later today that will be Dark's problem!" She responded, taking after Lucy's words and attitude, the still half-asleep Riolu raising a paw, smiling.

"Atta girl… Keep going like that and you'll be as cool as Aunt Lucy…" She was half asleep and couldn't tell what she was saying, but in her head the thought of Emily calling her Aunt Lucy somehow made her feel cooler and better… but obviously only when it came from Emily's mouth. Hearing Dark say it was just… weird.

"It will be yes, but if you don't take the pill now I can't take it later." The indirect victim of this event said for himself looking at Emily and… "Please Emily, just this once, okay? And you will not have to take anymore forever." He pleaded to her while Dust held the medicine up to her.

"No!" She repeated her negative and jumped up to the table, almost making Hadrim fall from it for the size of her body, getting on four legs and growling at all of them. "The pills taste bad!" Everyone that had been sitting around the table getting scared out of their skin.

"Okay, have it your way." Dark let out deciding to drop the matter. "And Dust… did you really get into my room without telling me to get my meds?" He asked the Shinx who just shrugged.

"Your door wasn't closed and your pills where just on top of the desk. I didn't need to look much into your things if that's what worries you." He said calmly as a response. "Do any of you really think we'll make it for tonight?" He asked them since he had some trouble believing that, even if they were to get on their way that very instant.

Elly nodded. "Yeah, I think we will! I mean, if we leave right now in a couple of minutes, we'll get there, and back! The islands aren't that big if those geography books were any indication."

Nox, however, had another opinion. "Uuuuh… Elly, sorry to burst your bubble, but… It's never that easy. I mean, I'm pretty sure something's gonna happen on the way there and we're gonna have to take a detour, and we're gonna have to help someone or something, and we're gonna…"

"You're gonna need to shut up, Nox. Why are you so negative?! Just this once, why don't you try to think positive, and that everything is going to be alright?" The Sneasel said, taking another bite of her apple whilst she shooed Emily off the table. The Zoroark stuck her tongue out at her and she got down, looking over the rest with a smile on her face. She was **really** liking that body.

"Because it's never like that Elly…" The Vulpix responded, looking at his companions.

"For the first time in the history of Team Star… I feel inclined to agree with Nox: There is a high probability that we will come across trouble on our way to the island, the percentage is extremely high. Not only that, but you should remember that not everyone we will stumble upon will take our presence in their territory kindly." Jake explained all of this with his usual monotone voice… albeit it was in reality Shade's.

"The Pokémon of this island know about this family and are not hostile us, but on another Island it could be a complete different story." Hadrim said to them. "So we are good walking around the territories here."

Elly pouted and looked at everyone around her. "Why did you all have to go ahead and tell me all that! I know it's not going to be easy, it never is!" She droped her head on the table, using her arms as some sort of pillow and looking away from everyone. "I just wanted to be hopeful."

Serge laughed at her words. "Well, there's a huge difference between being hopeful and fooling yourself Elly. I think all of us know it's not going to be easy, but we'll manage… Somehow. I mean…" Serge showed his newly acquired Lucario muscles, boasting. "Have you seen these weapons? And these legs are pretty mean as well, and I want to put them to good use!" He certainly sounded cheerful to be in Luca's body. However, this act only awarded him the prize of two angry responses, one in the shape of a hard peak to the back of his head, courtesy of Luca, and a headbutt from the front from Hadrim. The Pidgeot just entering the kitchen to find this birdbrain showing off **her** body and the Espeon being angry for the same thing.

" **Oh Arceus, no!** " He shouted this as loud as he could as he was toppled by both hits, and then covered his head as Luca kept up with her pecking. "Please, not the eyes! It's your body!" He kept screaming for mercy, but the Pidgeot only let up when she felt like it, scoffing and looking away from the Lucario.

"Yes. It's **my** body, for both pain and boasting, so stop!" She told him and walked towards her mate.

"Have a bit of respect for my mate, will ya?" Hadrim said with a stern tone, he kept a calm face and gave the Lucario a cold stare with Luca standing by his side and looking angry.

Everyone simply stared at the show in front of them, everyone but Nox and Lucy letting out a long sigh, expecting this outcome, whilst the aforementioned two giggled at the Lucario's misbehaviour. "And… well, if it… really comes down to it, I guess I could fight as well. I have experience with bipedal bodies… but we should try to avoid fighting if we can, not all of us can handle it." Zed said, looking at Lucy from the corner of his eye.

"Yeah… Sadly they can't." Elly glanced at Eric, and the former Riolu could have sworn there was an air of superiority in her look… but he quickly dismissed it, thinking she was just being playful, and because she was in Jake's body it came out the wrong way… Which was a perfectly logical explanation, now that he thought long and hard about it. The Sneasel's body just seemed to be… it felt like he had been made in such a way that looking slightly suggestive was extremely wrong and creepy, though it was most likely because of the fact they just weren't used to it.

Eric shivered and regained his composure. "Well, either way, if we're going to depart, we better do it now. Now… has someone at least told something to the humans? At least some form of excuse so that they won't miss us for like… an entire week at most?" The smallest Eevee out of them all asked this question… only to be promptly ignored by about everyone in the room, with the exception of his own mate and Jake… which would've seriously crushed him if those two hadn't listened. He repeated his question, albeit in a much louder voice, and this time everyone paid attention. He really, **really** needed his body back.

"They aren't awake yet." Luca said this time. "And even then, Ichiro is, out of the three humans, the one that understands us the most, but only Riolu, Eevee, Lucario and Espeon. The rest of the sounds he can't comprehend." She added. "And we would have to wait until mid morning for him to wake up." She ended.

"But we could leave a note for them." Radius said. The Houndour immediately went to the counter and opening a drawer, taking out a paper and then a pen, but since this body wasn't used to this kind of things, he didn't had luck writing. Elly was about to speak up and try to write, try to apply her newly gained human language knowledge… but then she remembered that she didn't have her psychic powers, and she didn't even want to begin describing how annoying using Jake's hands was, as least in comparison to her psychic abilities. Now she knew why he was also crying about "not having the right tools", although every time he got his "inspiration" he made some amazing things.

"Let me do it, brother." Shade said going to him and taking the pen from him, again showing how lucky she was to have ended in her brother's body by quickly writing down a note that said that they were going out a few days to enjoy a bit the wild. "There. They don't need to worry too much." She said and went to the fridge, rose on two paws and let the note there, readable human letters showing on the note added by a quick draw of an Eevee face in a corner with a bow in one ear, her way to say it was her the one who wrote it, while the pen was still held between two of her front left paw's digits.

Elly giggled at the sight of the Eevee's signature, and thought of copying her idea to some extent whenever they got back home, albeit she didn't say anything because knowing how pessimistic the rest of the team was, they would tell her "We're probably going to be living here for the rest of our lives." or something like that. Well… actually, she knew they wouldn't do that, she was just resentful towards all of them for shutting her down like that.

Serge got up quickly and imitated the pose Eric did whenever they headed out for a mission. "Alright guys, let's do this!" He rose a fist and waited for everyone to follow his example… but it just didn't have the same effect, albeit at least Emily did the same with a "Yay!" and a little hop off of the ground. Eric sighed, recognizing the position, once again bummed that he was stuck in Emily's body.

"Well, as Serge said… let's move it people. The sooner we leave the sooner we'll get our bodies back. Our first stop is…" He looked at Hadrim, waiting for him to finish that train of thought.

"First stop should be… Ebony Port." Luca answered instead, being more up to date than Hadrim regarding the cities of the Island. "It's the port city of this island. There we will surely find someone that will sell us a ride to Zalkar Island." She added.

"Well… Then get a few things for the way and we will head for Ebony Port." Hadrim said nodding.

After they all were ready they came out of the house, some of them had a bag with just a few fruits and berries inside as to not leave the humans with nothing and hoping they'll could get more on the way. Luca had also said to them that it was going to take them all morning to reach the port city if they walked all the way… but all of them taking a bus would not be cheap, and it would also… break the fun of enjoying the wild.

Everyone cheered as they left the house, ready for some adventuring in this new world. Sure, they may have left the house and the forest a couple times in the past, but never had they left the island… hell, some had never traveled by sea in their lives. And it was with this thought in their heads that Lucy came upon a chilling realization: Water would be everywhere.

* * *

As Luca said, it took an entire morning's worth of walking to get there, as well as exhausting Serge's pun and joke repertoire, Elly's list of songs and some other shenanigans, and when they arrived the Pidgeot smiled and turned around on one talon to face the rest and somehow managed to strike a pose without falling down, making Serge's eyes go wide upon seeing this position. He was definitely going to borrow that, he looked **stellar** in that pose.

"Everyone. Let me welcome you to Ebony Port." She said to them all, extending her wings but behind her there was only a forest of very thick ebony trees that extended wherever they looked until it reached a big deck where right now, few fishing boats were tied and some small cargo ships. The place seemed to be calm and quiet but their ears caught the sounds of a busy city from a direction they couldn't determine.

"Ok… that pose looks **amazing**." Serge complemented. "And second of all… it's almost all trees, like… I guess it's cool." He said and looked up, and didn't look back down.

"I'd rather get through this place faster, or else I think we're going to get sap in our furs, and that's no fun at all." Lucy pointed out, not too keen on the idea of having to clean that Riolu body once more.

"Yes that would be the best, but… we didn't take many things from the household so we better restock a bit, just in case, right?" Hadrim said to them, the Zorua starting to walk towards a tree.

"We did take poké with us, right?" Zed inquired, his face growing pale as he remembered that small, but essential detail.

"I have our savings, don't worry." Luca said calmly, and with a smile. "Now… if you are so kind to look upwards." She added and did just that, the others following except Had, who was already climbing up a wooden stairway made of branches that grew out of the tree. Over them, was the source of the noise.

A full functioning city was on top of their heads. Bridges connecting the trees and branches doing snail stairways around the trunks and a few bridges hidden by the tree trunks connected the city with the deck. Dark and Natalie were stunned. Let's be honest, they had never gone out of the town the house was at and seeing this, almost like taken out of a fantasy story, let them without words and their mouths just wide open and willingly letting flies go in and out freely, stealing some berry chomps from between their fangs.

Natalie was the first of them to recover her voice. "Woah… How? Just… Erm…" She found her voice but not the words.

The entirety of Team Star was also amazed, asides from Jake and Elly, who had already read about it on their books. Still, the rest were caught off-guard by this amazing turn of events. "Holy shit. That's actually really cool. Reminds me of the Capital when you look from down in the valley." These words left the Lucario's mouth, who was just caught off-guard by what he was seeing, but also kicking himself in the back for not being able to fly, which would've made finding this a lot easier.

"If you trying to ask how is this possible." Luca said, looking at Natalie and smiling with glee at being able to give the information and loving each second, almost giggling like mad. "There's a pack of only Grass types that take care of this trees and help them grow up. It is an interesting story but shall we move? We have shopping to do!" She said starting to follow her mate.

While they were restocking on supplies and everything, Luca told them that this city was at first a pack's place, but with time, humans came because it was just a great spot to live in. This caused some tensions and almost broke into a fight for the area, but that was thankfully avoided for a reason that no one knows or remembers and, as long as the humans worked to keep the city clean and strong with the Pokémon of that pack, they would be allowed to live there. Since then it had been a few centuries and the trees had grown. She told them that at first the city was like any other, at ground level, but of course… the trees do grow up with time.

"Okay… How do you know all of this, Luca?" Luna was the one that asked this, surprised by such story and knowledge from her.

"Oh! I just love urban tourism and have investigated every town of the island a few times… and got a few scoldings out of that from Clara when I came back three days after going missing without a word. And of course, Galvanet has a lot of information." She giggled at this like a young pokémon teen retelling what with time turned into a funny anecdote.

All of the Team Star members had been paying attention to her, but over time their interests had waned and they were focusing more on their surroundings rather than Luca's words, as they were unfortunately not skilled enough to do both actions at the same time. Eric and Zed were both muttering together about what was going on around them, and the hanging bridges through the which they traversed, trying to see the sun through the treetops, though finding it impossible. Lucy was amazed with the layout of the place, thinking that it would be exciting to be running around there and stage a race, and finally Nox was trying his absolute hardest to have his mouth closed on reaction, since his abilities, even in Luna's bodies, usually didn't have the best of relationships with forests, already earning himself some glares from the humans and pokémon around them, just as Radius was.

Serge was internally screaming for not having found that place when he first flew all over the island, and now was deeply regretting the fact that he didn't even have the capability to fly, something he'd definitely love to do at the moment, because he could see other flying pokémon above him, mainly bug types, with the which it would've been a blast to talk with. And finally, Elly and Jake were listening to Luca's words, and immediately turned to face her at the mention of this last source of information. "Galvanet? What is that?" The former Eevee was the quickest to ask.

"Well… it is just… You have seen this machine with what seems to be a TV and some others things at the household, right?" She asked her. "Where Dust or Dark used to spent most of the day sitting on when they were not in the basement nor training around?" She asked. Elly and Jake looked at eachother in blatant confusion.

"I think we better wait until we come back to explain that." Hadrim said to Luca. "Otherwise it will be hard for everyone to explain and for everyone to understand." He added.

"Yeah… that'd be the best." She said. "If you don't mind waiting." She added looking at them.

"We don't. Besides, we have more urgent matters no- What are you two doing?" Elly speaks in a deadpan tone as she finds Eric and Zed simply looking around like children going to a circus and bumping into everyone and everything in their path, including Elly herself. She turns around to look at the duo, who just look away and blush, muttering quick apologies.

Dark and Natalie were just as fascinated by this city as those two, also bumping every now and them with someone. After passing through the market tree and restocking, spending a chunk of the poké, Luca guided them towards the deck. Hadrim smiling seeing his mate so cheery at the moment so he just played along with her just to make her happy. However, when they stepped out of the last bridge and back onto the ground, a Machamp bumped with Natalie, making her fall on her side and the other one to trip and almost fall while it ran in a strange hurry. It muttered an insult and ran off quite quickly, all of the Team Star members looking at him curiously.

"Now that was a bit rude." Natalie said standing back up, Dark was by her side, looking at the retreating one until it disappeared into the crowd. Radius went to her side as fast as he could, asking her if she was okay and she reassured him with a smile.

After this, they went to port and started looking for a ship that would take them to Zalkar. After asking around, they got directions to a guy who had to leave for Zalkar on business soon, and thus could carry them if they afforded the trip. However, the board that lead to the ship was closed, and there was a rope that blocked entry, hanging from the which was a sign that said: 'Be right back after a meal, sorry for the inconvenience'. "Perffffffffffect!" Hadrim let out, biting his lower lip. The Zorua looked around. No one was around that seemed to work at this ship. "We will have to wait until whomever that works here comes back from lunch." He stated the obvious, but if he remembered correctly, not all of them knew how to read human.

"Whelp! We tried!" Serge says this and immediately lays down on the floor on his side, faking a yawn as to make everyone around him he's already falling asleep. It doesn't work, and he only ends up with about ten pokémon or more glaring at him with either looks of annoyance, amusement or just inexpressive. Either way, he gets up, dusts himself off and groans. "Alright, plan B?" He expects an immediate response from the clever ones, but even Elly and Jake are left there without anything coming to mind. Eric steps up, looking at the boat, specifically at the open door of the cabin, then looks at Hadrim.

"Is it custom to leave these boats wide open so that anyone can take them?" He asks semi-ironically, though weary that in this world it could very possibly be like that.

"No… It certainly is not." The Zorua answered looking for what the Eevee was saying.

"Then I don't think this guy precisely left for a meal…" The Eevee muttered, quickly scurrying underneath the rope and running up the plank and onto the boat.

Everyone watched this unfold, surprise written all over their faces. "What the hell are you doing? Eric, get back here!" The Sneasel repeated this to her mate, but he ignored her and he boarded the ship. She groaned and was about to start moving, but a much taller Lucario got ahead of her, lifting one leg over the rope and infiltrating the vessel as well.

"We're going to get in big trouble for this…" Zed muttered low enough so only those that were around him heard, and they couldn't agree less with the former Zorua. Meanwhile, Eric and Serge ascended to the boat's cabin and checked the door. The lock was smashed in, the shape of a giant fist dented into where the lock used to be, and they both immediately remembered that Machamp from a few minutes ago. They had found his desperate running a little odd… and now they knew why.

The Lucario slowly pushed the door open getting a peek inside, whilst the Eevee poked his head out from behind the door and looked inside. There was no one in there, but the whole room was an absolute mess, with sea charts, a wooden steering wheel and hell, even a sextant all scattered about the room, as if someone had searched it thoroughly. The part with the steel steering wheel and other devices, such as a GPS were completely fine, which was a relief. Either way, they had a pretty good idea of what happened as they went back out. "Hey, this whole place is a mess! I think someone might've broken in!" Serge exclaimed, then looked at the broken door, smirking. "Or rather, _smashed_ in." His comment was responded by a facepaw from Eric's part, who simply groaned and they began walking back to the board.

"Are you two nuts or what!?" Hadrim said to them. "You just can't get into someone's boat just like that! What if the owner had come back and caught you in? We'll have a mess with the local police!" He said to them, his breathing was slightly faster but the Zorua tried to keep in control, even with this little scold he was giving them. "What possessed you to risk spending days in a cage?"

But just then, a human with a blue trench coat came around the corner, and as soon as he saw the pokémon up there on that boat his eyes went wide open as plates, and he had a Vaporeon following him as well. The duo broke into a sprint, shouting at them, whilst Serge simply glared at Hadrim. "You just **had** to open your damn mouth, uh Hadrim?!" The Lucario scoffed.

"Oi, you land lubbers! Stop roight there or I'll be sending the cops after ya blokes!" He had the weirdest accent any of them had ever heard, but they didn't move from their spot, and once the human got there, he was absolutely livid, stomping the ground with his foot. "What in the name of Poseidon are ya filthy mutts doing on my precious Miryan?! Get off 'er before I send ya bastards down to Davy Jones' locker!" His repertoire of insults was… colorful, to say the least, and now they all understood the expression "To swear like a sailor". Next to him, however, the Vaporeon was really angry, but he seemed to be more open to a conversation.

"So, are ya'll gonna explain yourselves or are we going to have to call the police?" His accent and vocabulary weren't as strong as the sailor's, but he was still hard to comprehend. However, it was good enough for the pokémon.

"Ummm… ok, listen this is all just a big misunderstanding, see…" Elly took a step forward, but the Vaporeon growled at the Sneasel, who remained still.

"Oh, of course I'd be a Sneasel! Ya filthy stinkin' ice rats! You always bring trouble where you see fit!" His response, in turn however, made a certain shiny Eevee go livid.

"You racist sea mutt! How dare you speak of m- he- **his** species like that?!" This was headed to become a heated argument between everyone as the sailor kept shouting insult after insult at the group, and didn't seem to be about to let on his offensive. That was, however, until Eric decided to take matters into his own hand, jumped up to the ship's railing and told Serge to cover his ears. What followed that moment was the single loudest and highest pitched Eevee scream any of them had ever heard, and they all understood it as an order to stop pitching for a fight.

Once Eric ran out of breath he found himself taking in air quite quickly, but he managed to find his voice. "We… we came here looking for a ship… and we saw that the door was opened. We thought you might've been in there… but the door's busted, and there's a huge fist shaped ma-" Eric didn't get to finish that sentence, because the Sailor suddenly looked at him and then ran past everyone else, pulled off the rope and got onto the ship, into the cabin… and yet another stream of verbal filth left his mouth, now cursing a missing pokémon in that scene. The Vaporeon sighed, hearing his swears, and identifying the shouts that were telling him that "It's been stolen".

"Tol' the fool to not leave it on that there ship… bloody heck, and this day just can't get any worse…" He muttered in a low voice.

"You seem to have some troubles." Hadrim commented.

"Yeah, you don' bloody say. Stop actin' smart, land lubber. If ya don't want to get the cops involved… Aight, tell me what happened." He inquired and they told him the entire story again, and once they were finished he looked at his master, who was still swearing and going on about a Machamp. "Sorry ya blokes were involved in all this… but see, 'tis here ship ain't getting anywhere anytime soon... not until we get back what we want." He concluded with a sad look on his face.

Before anyone else could say anything however, Elly broke in and stepped in the middle. "Alright, everyone **stop** **just one second** and explain what the heck is going on!" She exclaimed. To the surprise of everyone there, it wasn't the Vaporeon who responded, but the human.

"I got robbed like a sardine, that's wot." Everyone looked at the human, who wore a bittersweet smile at their flabbergasted looks on their faces, then tapped his ear. "You blokes ain't from around 'ere, are ya? I be wearing one of those 'translators', nifty little things they are. Help me understand Leonard over there." He points at the Vaporeon, and then at himself. "I be the captain of this here lady, the S.S. Myrian. Me name be Will Line, albeit ya blokes didn't really care for much at this point. Sorry I burst out like that at you like that, I had one too many drinks… Blimey, that liquor be good, and I be damned if it ain't true!" He smashed his fist onto the railing, as if asserting a point after that long exposition, and everyone else just looked at him in confusion.

"He says that he was drinking just now in that bar just down the peer. Now though, I think he's just trying to forget what just happened… You see, captn' here had a nifty treasure: a golden compass with jewels. It be a gift of a lover he once had, many a years before he became meh master, and took great care of thing… shame, however, that the stinking rat had to be around at this time of year." The Vaporeon prevented himself from going into another stream of swears.

"Who?" Serge asked.

"He be called the "black fist" around these parts. A bloody Machamp who's got a knack for treasure I hear… and the bloody bastard made off with mine this time!" He once again smashed his fist, repeating the motion in frustration. "Now the bloke must've ran off with it, and I never will see meh treasure back!" He smashed his head on the railing with little care to his health and began crying and sobbing, which made everyone wince in pain, albeit the Vaporeon was calm.

"Don't worry about him, the alcohol must've gotten to his head… literally." He added.

Meanwhile, Eric's head was working at sixty miles per hour. If this description fit, then the Machamp that had ran past them just a few minutes ago… "Hey, listen. We… uh… when we were coming over here, a Machamp was running in the opposite direction, and he looked like he was hiding something. Do you think…" He trailed off, letting the Vaporeon finish that sentence.

"That it might be him?… possible… really, really probable. But… even then, the cops would take too long in searching him. The bloke might be gone by then." The water type looked at the wooden deck, having lost all hope. Elly however, understood where Eric was going, and so did Jake… and basically everyone in that group.

"What if…" Shade started to talk but stopped for just a moment. "Look we need to get to Zalkar. What if we help you recover your treasure and you help us get there?" She asked, offering to help recovering something so special in exchange for taking them to the other shore, but on the other side she was slightly nervous, not knowing how the others would take her freely offering all their help without even asking.

The others, who had been listening silently and going about their thoughts without saying a single word in all of this, now said even less, actually pondering the idea. It would be risky with the situation they were already in, but more than one could agree that this kind of treasure was more than worth the risk, they just needed a plan and that if there was confrontation it had to be as quick as possible.

The captain's face lit up as she said this. "You'd really… By golly, will you lot actually do that for us?!" He asked. Elly looked back at Shade, and then looked at everyone else. They didn't need to say anything, as look sufficed, and the Sneasel faced the captain and nodded. His face beamed when they responded affirmatively. "Thank you thank you thank you! I can't express me gratitude!" He exclaimed, almost crying tears of joy now.

"If you lot are gonna go after that bastard, you might as well know what we know. The bloke's tough, real tough… brick tough, some say, but they say the bloke has a weakness: He be a fan of the ladies, a really big fan, and he be a fan of the Eevees too, so... " He gulped as he looked at the three Eevee females in front of him. "You lot figure out the rest. If you do manage to bring it back… there will be no words that will express our gratitude." He said.

Eric smirked. "Well, looks like even in this world we can't run away from our duty… Alright everyone, let's go and make up a plan! Will, Leonard, we will be bringing back that compass, don't worry about it, mateys!" This last exclamation didn't earn him any laughter, he was only met with the sound of silence and the wind as everyone gave him deadpan looks, even the captain.

"A young lass like you don' be meat for the seas I'm afraid…" He simply says, making the Eevee stumble forward and faceplant, unwilling to get up. Elly rolls her eyes and grabs him with his paws, to then drag him away across the dock, hitting his muzzle with every single board they walked over. Eventually they got to the peer and they began talking and drawing out a plan.

"Alright, let's see.. We have a Machamp thief that took off with a golden compass and that breezed right next to us… I don't think we'll have trouble to find it actually, Machamps aren't exactly super sneaky. If we ask around, we can…" Some pokémon were paying attention to her talking, but Jake had walked off and approached a Ninetales and asked them if they had seen a Machamp going around. They had, and they told him that they had seen a Machamp running into the bar just about half an hour ago, looking really shady.

Jake got this information and approached the circle of pokémon as Elly was finishing her speech "... and we need to make this quickly, or else he'll slip right through our paws. Any questions?" To her honest surprise, Jake rose a paw, and everyone looked at the Eevee.

"I know where Machamp has gone off to." He simply declared in a deadpan tone, everyone looking at him shocked. He explained all of what he had been told, and then pointed at the bar the Ninetails had directed him to.

"Well that takes one thing out of the 'to do' list." Natalie said. "Now how do we confront him? You know our situation, so I'd say we better do that quick enough so he can't retaliate." She said. "About luring him out of the bar… How about one of us, lures him out. Since he seems to… 'be a huge fan of the ladies and Eevee' as Mr. Leonard said… we should give it a try." She proposed.

"Well, ma' lady, you won't be the one that does that." Dark immediately jumped into her plan, not wanting her to risk it and end up in a… difficult situation. Elly, Lucy and Jake quickly glanced at Dark, then redirected their attention to other issues, though they all internally agreed that the dark type's claim was slightly selfish.

"Dark, stop worrying so much about me! I can handle myself and you know it, lil' bro." She said, the Espeon not being able to respond to her, not even at her teasing. After all, she was right about taking care of herself. "Besides would you rather send any other? Eric here is right now in a kit's body, and Jake with his way of talking is more creepy than alluring." She added, taking a sweet moment to pinch at the Shiny Eevee, who didn't react in any way, making everyone look at him weird.

Dark just couldn't find anything with what to argue with this and in the end he sighed. "I'd rather any other option, but fine, if everyone agrees let's go on with this." He said, but his worry wasn't taken away from his face.

Everyone was starting to show conflicted looks about the current, situation, but Jake then came up with something. "How about we let luck decide? It is fair, random and equal for all of us." Everyone glanced at Zed, who shied away and became a ball of fur… a ball of blue fur, surprising even Eric, who didn't know his body could become so compressed, as he said this, and the Eevee had to correct himself. "Or rather, **almost** all of us, that way, whatever the outcome of this decision is, we cannot fight against it." He said, looking at the other two pokémon that were inside of female Eevee bodies. "Just now that I am willing to sacrifice my moral integrity for this mission's success." He added just a bit later.

Eric was having his doubts… but the odds were stacked in his favour, and if he refused he would most likely be chastised by the rest. Besides, even though he was inside a young body, he was still him, he could use his own intellect and experience to get himself out of a rough situation if he had to. He glanced at Elly, smirking, which she identified and directed a playful look… although with Jake's face it seemed creepy more than anything else, which was only accentuated by the former Sneasel's actual words. "I say we do it that way. It's only fair." He commented, telling himself that he'd be lucky… for once.

Natalie was about to say that she would be the one doing it, but Dust beat her to say a word. "Then you're up for a twig game." He said smiling holding with his tail three twigs he had picked up of different sizes, holding them in a way that it was impossible to tell which one was the biggest or the smaller. "Smallest pays up." As he says this, Eric and Jake both audibly gulp. Just because they were both willing to do it didn't mean they would **actually** enjoy doing it… albeit they didn't really have much of a choice at this point.

Natalie dared to be the first to approach the Shinx and picked up a twig from the tail, but before he let go she waited for the other two to do the same and hold theirs. Both of the other Eevees did the same, extremely scared of what was about to unfold. Dust just enjoyed a bit of building up teasing suspense but uncoiled his tail from around the twigs after five seconds of them having picked for everyone to see who would be the one doing the job. Natalie had her eyes closed for a moment until she opened them and looked at her twig… then at the others… she had picked the medium sized one.

Everyone stared at the other two twigs in complete silence, and Jake couldn't process what he had in his hands: The biggest twig of all. " **Yes!** " Not once had he been so happy that luck was on his side. On the other paw however, the realization dawned on all of them, including the former Riolu, who was staring at his stick with a flabbergasted look on his face. Eric had gotten the smallest twig of all. This turn of events was received differently by all other members of Team Star, but they all looked on in silence, mainly out of respect for the poor guy. Laughing at him for having gotten the smallest body out of all of them was bad enough… but he had gotten the literal short end of the straw twice now. On the other side, the Kaiser didn't say anything, just looking at the Eevee, Luna for once decided to bite her paw to avoid laughing, she was waiting for another outcome that for her would have been just as funny but… yeah, while Dark and Radius both bite the inside of their mouth, Hadrim frowning a bit and Luca sighed. Dust was torn between having a laugh or say something to Eric… in the end he did say something.

"Uh… We can make it the best of three." He offered the other. The former Riolu firmly shook his head however, looking up as tears streamed down his face.

"I hate you all, and I hate this… But I'm not going to be sitting around a second longer in this body. " He simply stated.

* * *

Machamp, the Black Fist, or as close friends knew him, Morty, was just a simple outlaw. He didn't really think much about his "heists" and he did it just to get through, so there wasn't anything special about him… except for his rather unhealthy obsession with Eevees. It had started when he had met a cute Eevee girl back in the forest where he was born, and from that point onward he could never get them out of his head, and to his dismay, they were the rarest type of pokémon to find mostly everywhere… but on those islands, it was a different story. He came from the motherland, as some would say, and had decided to stay because there was a wide selection of females to pick and choose… for the right price of course, and his newly acquired prize was probably going to be more than enough for a couple of nights of company and good food, as well as the drinks he was already enjoying in that bar on the treetops.

He contemplated his newest acquisition with a smile. The idiot had left something so valuable right on the wall in his cabin, and had left to get lunch. As soon as Morty's eyes had fixated on that compass it's fate had been sailed. Busting into the place had been easy, albeit he had accidentally messed everything up, but it wasn't his problem anymore. Now he just had to wait for a few hours and lay low and leave during the night, and he'd be golden. The only problem was that it was as boring as it could be, and couldn't really talk much to anyone or show that thing around too much, and of course… he couldn't really go ask for some friendly company either… Or at least that's what he thought.

It was then when a small Eevee went into the bar, which caught his eye immediately. That way of walking around and looking insecure… they had to be female, and what gave them away to him was the way they had their tail pointed down all the time. He smiled internally as she walked around and looked, slightly scared, until she stopped right in front of him.

* * *

Eric looked at the intimidating figure in front of him, and gulped down as the words struggled to come out of his mouth. Back when he was in this body this guy would probably be a **chump** , because he literally looked as much of a professional thief just as real as a wooden poké was. Literally, his skin was completely fine, not a single scar or scratch to be found, and he had an anxious look on his face which basically gave him away, albeit he didn't know if this was because of his presence or the fact he was thief.

"Uuuh… hi." He quietly let out, not really sure or if what he was doing was right or not, but at that moment his mind was racing, and couldn't care less, especially when he leaned down with a wide smile to look at him up close.

"Why hello there, you little thing. What is a pretty little flower like you doing in just a vile place like this one? This isn't a place for ladies like you to walk around defenseless!" Morty exclaimed, trying to win her over. She was small, but she appeared older than she let out to be, or at least her eyes told him so.

The female Eevee, who was in reality a male Riolu, didn't know what to say at first, but decided to fake surprise. "Oh, uh… really?! I… don't know much about all of that, mister… Uh…" He tried to entice him to at least say his proper name, get a conversation going.

He complied, though decided to give her his own little twisted version. "My name is Morty Machamp, and I'm a famous archeologist. I came to this bar to calm down and relax after my latest discovery... " He pulled out the stolen golden compass, boasting about it. "And that was when you decided to drop by. How about I buy you something to drink, you look thirsty… and hungry too." He smirked at these last words, thinking he was being clever with the innuendo.

Eric had to fight back both the uncontrollable urge to gag, but also to facepaw, because this guy was boasting and showing that compass around like it was his. " _This guy is a Arceus damned idiot… Well, better put an end to him now before he decides to move on to something for serious._ " He thought to himself. "Well, uh… yeah, I kinda am." He said, unsure of what to say, deciding for him to take the lead.

"Alright, if that's the case, come over and sit down over here." He tapped the spot on the couch next to him, snapped on of his fingers and ordered a glass of beer for the Eevee right next to him, who was **clearly** much too young to be drinking that kind of stuff, but at that point it barely mattered. "Well.. whilst that's coming your way, what's your name, little thing?" He asked her politely, though his intentions couldn't be any less vulgar.

"My name's Shade, and… I'm here looking for some… some…" Eric really couldn't bring himself to say the word, just because of how wrong and dirty it sounded. Not even he used it when he was dirty talking with Elly… at least not often. "Fuunnnn…" He managed to stutter out whilst closing his eyes and hiding his blush. The heroic saviour of a world, who had fought against a great evil and barely survived, was now asking for a four armed Machamp thief to help him have some "fun", and not the clean type of fun. And not only that, but to add insult to injury, he was stuck in a small female Eevee body.

Those words were basically all the confirmation Morty needed… but he wasn't a fan of exhibitionism, and sadly there weren't any enclosed spots in that place. "Hey… how about we take somewhere more… _private_?" He asked, winking his eye at the Eevee girl.

Eric shuddered at that wink, which was as sensual as a god damn Jinx's. In fact, this all felt as horrible and awkward as if he was flirting with a Jinx… one of his worst nightmares. Either way, he faked a "giggle", which was just a strange high pitched noise that came through his teeth and the Machamp got up, paid the drinks and waved at him to come along. The first thing he noticed was that he was massive, it showed even underneath all of the shadows, and the second thing he noticed was that he was really small…

" _Oh Arceus… those guys better have a good plan, or else…_ " He didn't even want to **think** about what would happen if they failed, but it certainly would be worse than death at that point. The Machamp opened the door outside, and the two left the bar, walking down the bridges and headed for the lower ground, an idea that had come from the Eevee. "If we're going to do this… if we go to the ground level and hide behind a bush or something… that would be good enough for me." He said. It was good enough for him on occasions, but only if Elly was ok with it… He shook his head, getting those thoughts out of there. It wasn't the time for that.

"Well, aren't you a dirty little girl… you like getting grass and mud in your fur, eh? Well… can't say I blame you. After all it's the most natural." He laughed at his own joke, trying to make small talk about… stuff. As they had all agreed on, Eric did not look behind them, where a duo of pokémon, a Sneasel and a Riolu were following them closely. As they went further down, they almost bumped into an Espeon, and walked past a Pidgeot having a heated argument with another Riolu and a Houndour, with a Vulpix simply sitting nearby and making bored faces.

Finally, they reached the lowest levels, and Eric lead the Machamp towards some bushes, whilst also flicking his tail about the place, something that definitely excited the fighting type. "Oh yeah, Shade, you little dirty girl! Keep doing that and I'm going to make sure you have a blast this afternoon…" He said this in a loud whisper, making Eric's cheeks burn bright red, whilst also angering a nearby male Eevee, but that would come to haunt him later. Now, he had to get that Machamp behind the bush.

The foolish fighting type followed the seemingly eager normal type behind the bush and the tree… only for a Lucario to come flying out from behind said tree, performing a roundhouse kick at full force directly to the face. The Machamp was too concentrated on his lust to see the blow coming, or the fact that it came from a female Lucario, but he received the blow directly to the face, breaking his nose and knocking him out right on the spot, falling backwards and toppling like a goliath, Eric feeling himself bounce up as the earth trembled around him.

Meanwhile, Serge's muzzle met the grass below, eliciting a groan of pain from the former Pidgeot, but as soon as he got up it turned into joy as he realized what he had just done. "Hell yeah! Always wanted to do that!" He laughed heartily and looked at his paws, then at the incoming group, specifically at the Pidgeot. "Y'know, I could get used to this!" He started throwing punches and kicks at the wind, feeling like a true martial arts expert.

"Not in this lifespan, dear." Came Luca's answer, which hit the former Pidgeot hard. He crouched down and started poking the ground, sad that he had been crushed like that, though Elly found his reaction funny. Now he knew how she had felt a few hours ago. "And if you get used to this, forget about flying again." The Pidgeot added, the reason obvious.

"Eric?" Shade said going to him at a seemingly calm pace. "Did you… **really** … as in, no other option whatsoever, **had** to use **my name**!?" Her anger being clear by the last part of what she said, almost about to jump at him. These words made another few faces turn towards the former Riolu, some staring stunned, the others staring… like they were about to… yeah not a pretty thought.

"Uh… Sorry… it was just the first name that came to mind! I mean… if I used Elly's, she would've killed me, if I used Natalie's, Dark kills me, if I use Emily's… probably either Dust or Nox have a go at me… And I'm definitely **not** using Luca's or Lucy's, lest I want something bad to happen to my body." He said, trying to defend his point… but even he knew it was basically useless.

"Well, how does "Erica" sounds like?" She said. She was angered by this, and she would pay him back and wouldn't have it any other way.

"Leave it now, sis, we have what we came for. You can have your payback when this mess of ours is fixed." Dust said, going to her side, glaring daggers at Eric.

Eric sighs and walks over to where Elly is, looking for her help. She smiles and crouches down to hug him. "Don't worry, whatever it is you can manage, Erica." She said with a wide toothy grin, the Eevee breaking away from the hug with a semi-serious look of betrayal. Elly laughs, once again that unpleasant noise leaving the Sneasel's throat, everyone cringing. "I'm sorry, but they got you good on that one." She was pretty happy with how things turned out.

"Oh, yeah, sure… we'll see who's laughing after I get my body back, Ms. I don't like being tickled on the…" She moved unbelievably quickly for being on two legs, silencing the Eevee, who was smiling underneath her hand, giving her a devilish look, albeit the damage was already done and everyone shared laughs at the couple's teasing.

* * *

The way back was calm and quick since they had their supplies and everything. They just needed to get to the ship and give back the compass. However, on the way, they passed by a stand where a woman was shouting offers of evolutionary stones to those that went by. There were some that stopped to look at the stand. As they walked by, Radius saw something that froze him on the spot: A little 'vee was looking at the stones with a human and a Leafeon by it's side. The little thing decided on a thunderstone and pointed at it. The human bought the stone but kept it, the Eevee happily smiling at him as the Leafeon nuzzled the back of its head.

This little scene had the Houndour fixed in place, unmoving. The sound of a stone cracking came back to his ears as he revived that memory, his face slowly frowning.

"Hey. Rad, bro?" Dust called him. The Shinx could not feel the other's emotions right now but that face was a dead giveaway. "Come let's keep going." He said gently. Radius said nothing but just stormed away towards the decks, dodging the rest of the group but slightly bumping into Zed as he had to walk between him and a passerby, a slight growl vibrating in his throat. Zed almost lost his balance, but didn't really pay that much attention to it, but Lucy didn't look away when stuff like this happened, and wasn't about let someone else walk over poor Zed like that.

"Hey, you're not the only one on this bridge, jerkface!" She shouted immediately, absolutely livid with the former Eevee. She wasn't about to have someone push her mate around like that, even though she herself did it sometimes.

"Put a fucking sock in your fucking mouth and leave me alone!" Rad snapped, and this made Shade and Dust cringe, since they knew there was only one thing that would put him this way. Zed and Lucy looked at eachother, but the former Shinx wasn't so easily intimidated, however...

"Please… don't hold it to him." Shade asked looking at the shiny Riolu. "He's just…" She couldn't find the words to describe what her brother might be feeling at that moment. Lucy looked at the walking Shinx and scoffed.

"He just got struck in a very sore spot." Dust ended walking again by their side.

After this, the fifteen pokémon reached the decks, and went towards the ship where Will and Leonard were. Radius was laying down by the still closed stand, his gaze lost forwards as he was thinking until they appeared and he rose to his paws and went to Lucy.

"I… I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it." He apologized to her, but Lucy groaned and put a fist on his head, giving him a noogie.

"Get over it, you pansy. It's not the end of the world… but if it happens again you'll get worse than a noogie." She threatened, walking a little bit shakily towards the dock like everyone else. Honestly, the touch felt somewhat familiar… maybe because she did it with his older brother's body. Rad just closed his eyes for the action and then looked at her.

"Maybe I could use a shock… or two." He answered walking with the others towards the boat.

Once there, Elly showed the golden compass to Will, whose eyes went wide open with happiness and snatched it from her hand, thanking all the existing gods and legendaries that there were. Leonard looked at the group.

"Thank you very much… and what about the thief?" He asked, Eric being the one to walk forward, a little awkward.

"We made sure to inform the authorities and he's been taken in for questioning… he won't bother anyone else." He said, but his current situation only made the Vaporeon look at the entire group in confusion.

"You know, it's funny… you lot seem pretty strong, but dis lass here be the one who calls the shots?" He asked, and the Eevee could only look at the ground in shame as everyone around him chuckled or laughed.

"Bah, nobody cares about it!" The Captain jumps into the conversation, stashing the compass into his pocket, his eyes flaming with energy. "I got me treasure back, and it be all thanks to you lot! I feel ripper now! Tell this old sea wolf what you want and I'll be all over it!" He exclaimed, the smile that Leonard had grown to love finally reappearing on that face.

"Well… We wanted someone to take us to Zalkar…" Elly begun, but was immediately interrupted as the captain laughed.

"That be all?! Blimey, then we shall set sail right now! And I shall be there whenever you need someone to take you to another island! It is the least that I can do for recovering me treasure!" As he said this he walked back to his ship and waved at the pokémon to join him on the vessel. Everyone looked at eachother, ecstatic, and began boarding the ship, albeit only one pokémon remained on the dock. It was a Riolu, who was trembling in fear. Zed turned to look at his mate.

"Hey, Lucy, what's wrong? Come on." He called her, walking back to other side of board again to talk with her. She gulped and looked at the water, immediately panicking, which made the Zorua remember her condition. "Oh… ok, just… close your eyes, and… let's get you across safely." The former Shinx complied and closed her eyes, and couldn't see anything other than darkness. She felt the other Riolu place his paws on her shoulders and began inching her towards the board. It took her a couple of steps before she felt the ground underneath her losing strength, and she knew she was beginning to stand directly above the water, getting the impulse to go back. However, her mate fought against her strength and kept encouraging her, going at a snail's pace whilst in front of her she heard sounds of laughter and conversation, which meant the boat was in front of her, and she was getting closer and closer...

Suddenly, Zed froze. "Nox, get out of the way! Come on!" He shouted, then Lucy heard laughter from the boat. She didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't liking his tone one bit.

"Nah… I think I'm going to try and encourage you guys a little…" As he said this, he lays down a paw on the plank and presses it, the bridge waving like jelly, which made Lucy and Zed start panicking.

"Nox, you better stop you hot headed punk or I'm going to get over there and rip your heart out!" Lucy screamed at the top of her lungs, screaming as the bridged waved more and more until it stopped. She refused to open her eyes, so she didn't see the sickeningly big grin that appeared on the Vulpix's face as he started repeating the motions, only faster. She began screaming hysterically now, whilst she was in Dust's body, and completely ignored Zed and began running forwards completely blind and flailing her arms around like crazy, not knowing where she was going. She kept screaming names, insults and incoherent screeches as she kept running and running, knowing only that the floor underneath her feet hadn't disappeared. She kept going until…

 **BONK**

Lucy smashed head first into the opposite railing of the ship, falling backwards with a loud thud, extremely dizzy. Meanwhile, Nox was roaring with laughter, and anyone that hadn't known what the hell was actually going on, and had only seen the former Shinx run straight into the wall also burst into laughter. Not even Elly could resist laughing at her friend's misfortune, albeit she'd probably say she was the "worsest best friend ever" when she confronted her about it.

Dust had gone to her side. "Hey, everything okay? Can you get up?" He asked, sounding genuinely concerned as he checked on her, only looking. Fortunately it was just the hit. She answered with senseless blabber. It is at moments like this that no one can hold back a laugh.

Zed, meanwhile, didn't know what to do or say, other than glare at Nox, rolling his eyes as he chuckled. "Hey, at least we got her on board." He simply said, the former Zorua sighing, knowing knowing that it wasn't going to be an easy trip.

 **Eric: And that's the end of that! As we said, it was a bit shorter than usual, but we're going to try to release more chapters often, albeit shorter. That way you guys won't be waiting around for such a long time and I don't get asphyxiated underneath by ever so busy sched**

 **Ray: Kind of fun at that moment, fearing that the sky blue eyed Eevee ended in a certain psychic male when we settled this swap.**

 **Eric: We would've come up with some bullcrap excuse, like all writers do… Don't deny it, we all have THOSE types of moments.**

 **Ray: I'm not going to ask about that and go along with some… awkward? sightings for her… shit that hurts for some reason. You know… with Dark and Nat… for now.**

 **Eric: Stop making everything so dramatic, will you? Besides, one step at a time. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and we'll see you all on the next one. Take care!**

 **Ray: Hey I suck at fun and you've been witness of that. Anyways, hope to see you all next chap! Byeeeeeeeeee! Oh yeah! Don't forget to leave a review, it helps a lot, guys.**

 **PS: The swaps, the characters and in whose bodies they ended up in, was all decided at random. We literally wrote down the names of the characters, put them in a hat and pulled them out at random. Just an interesting tidbit of trivia if you guys care about that sort of stuff!**


	9. Chapter 8 - Remains of a Destroyed Era

**Eric: Hey guys! So, before we begin this chapter, we're going to do something a bit more unique in this introduction A/N. Seeing as there are so many people leaving reviews as of late that we can't just respond to them all, we're going to be posting the responses to those reviews in the introductory author notes of each preceding chapter. Basically, if anyone posted a review on Chapter 7, we'll be answering that review here and now, and subsequently in the next chapters.**

 **Ray: I hope you didn't left behind your papers with those reviews, bro. So then… Who's first?**

 **Eric: I believe the first review would be a good friend of mine, WesternFail, who has been working and reading quite a lot lately, so it's definitely good to see you and Alger on this adventure with the rest of us. There's a lot of reviews to go through, so I'll stick with the latest one, where you said that us writers are a bunch of sadistic bastards… well, talk about pointing out the obvious. I mean, anyone who's read the last one can attest for that.**

 **Ray: I'm still angry for some things Eric here did there but it can't be changed now. At least he managed to avoid some rage quit. To your question… Heh well… things happen in a story after all and there is always this psychopath character that the authors have to move as well, one of the many bad things in this fic...**

 **Eric: Amongst the which is your broken english…**

 **Ray: I won't deny it but I'm trying to improve, am I not? Next one, please.**

 **Eric: Up next we have… AveragePichu. Glad to see you're still around, Philip (even though you changed your pen name) and yeah, it was kinda obvious that he'd be the one to go in… albeit it was a toss up between him and Jake, but since the latter wouldn't have been as hilarious, we decided to go with Eric. And yeah, you'll get shorter chapters that we'll try to make more frequently (blame my horrid schedule) but remember that we still have to do double the work in order to translate these chapters to both Spanish and English… so in the end, we're writing just as much as I did in the past.**

 **Ray: Aside from that, admit it, Jake's creepy as hell!**

 **Eric: But extremely hilarious.**

 **Ray: Yep. It would have been hilarious to have him try and seduce this Black Fist guy and just weird him out and scare him away… Anyways. We are trying to make it work so the chapters won't take four weeks to be released when we spent two working each chapter and then more or less the same translating if i'm correct on the time. Also I have high school schedule again and sometimes it might be… hard to have anything done… Even then we'll try. Ok who's next now?**

 **Eric: Uh… Nobody, we're done… Well, actually no, we still have TheSilverEevee, who got to the party late, but still, welcome my friend, it's been a long time, and I haven't been able to talk with you, so I'm happy that you can finally read what I have say. And… that's it! Oh wait, no, we have someone else, someone who sent a review at the very last possible moment!**

 **Ray: Wait, here you seem to have a last minute one, from Hjof.**

 **Eric: Yes, yes we do, and we are glad to have struck that little part of you that makes you wait eagerly for a newer chapter! And yes, I believe that ANYONE flirting with a Jinx is extremely traumatizing. Picture yourself with one, if you will, and tell us what you think. And yes, he'll get his little redemption, he's been the butt of the joke for quite a while now…**

 **Ray: no… thanks… I think I'll pass *shivers* And yes finally someone mentioned my 'not-so-little' moment with the evolutionary stones! YAY! I can leave this chapter happy! Thank you for mentioning it my good… reader. Well this is certainly something that has me hyped since this chapter you'll get to know a bit more of… someone, not gonna tell myself what's behind that, you'll just had to reach that part on your own… don't worry it's close.**

 **Eric: And that's it! For real!**

 **Ray: well then we'll be waiting for your reviews this chapter people so don't fret… is it like that? Anyways. No need to be afraid, we don't bite… too much. With no more to say then… Disclaimer please.**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own pokémon, if we did it won't be that childish… and we would be billionaires. Pokemon belongs to GF and TPC. We own our characters, the region where this mess is taking place and this story.**

 **Ray: And a little reminder for those still confused in the 'Who's who' game:**

 **Mind - Body:**

 **Eric - Emily  
Elly - Jake  
Zed - Eric  
Lucy - Dust  
Serge - Luca  
Jake - Shade  
Nox - Luna  
Emily - Dark  
Dark - Hadrim  
Natalie - Elly  
Radius - Nox  
Shade - Radius  
Dust - Lucy  
Hadrim - Zed  
Luca - Serge  
Luna - Natalie**

 **Ray: Now… on with this chapter!**

 **Chapter 8**

 **Remains of a Destroyed Era**

"Oh Arceus… here we go… Oh no… no…" Lucy tried to hold it in, but couldn't, rushing over to the railing and leaning out to the sea, where she proceeded to puke and toss the entire day's food out over the railing and into the sea. Zed rushed over to her and placed a paw on her back, patting her lightly as she let go of everything. When she was done, she looked up and sat down, extremely angry. "I hate water… **and I hate ships**." She concluded, Zed sighing as Lucy released her angry the best way she knew how.

"Alright, let's just calm down… let's go over to the front of the ship and stare out in the sea, ok? You need to get over this fear of yours Lucy, otherwise we're going to have some serious problems in the future…" The Riolu looked at him as if he was insane, but he gave her a determined look and tried to comfort her as best he could. It eventually worked, and Lucy shakily walked over to the front of the ship, looking out to the sea. Her sea sickness struck harder than ever and she began swaying back and forth, and Zed quickly ran over to where she was and hugged her, whilst telling the former Shinx to open her arms and stand in a cross form. He instructed her to breathe deeply, and she followed his instructions to a tee, leaving her with her arms spread and Zed's arms wrapped around her waist as they stood at the very front of the ship, remaining there for a few minutes.

On the other hand, the Kaiser were scattered around. Luca had decided to stay close to Serge and try to avoid him sitting either on the chimney or the railing. She was scared. Hadrim was just thinking on what to do when they arrived, the Zorua calmly sitting in the room Captain Will had let them take in case this trip got stretched overnight, which was more and more probable as time went by. Dark was enjoying a nap while Natalie was chatting with Shade. Luna was dutifully glued to Nox's side, relishing in the fact that she was surely annoying the other fire type. Dust was walking around calmly, muttering some sailor songs he had on his mind, not knowing if he should just let his lungs and voice carry the lyrics. And Radius… The Houndour had a green face, lying down at the far back of the ship, over the engines that moved it and thus where it moved the less. Even then it was impossible for him not to feel sick. He just had an easier time holding his breakfast and lunch into his stomach.

Walking around, Dust bumped into Leonard, who was doing his things around the deck, and the Shinx could swear that the Vaporeon was humming a tune that was familiar to him. However, his thoughts were interrupted when Captain Will started to sing from his cabin, a song that soon Leonard followed, letting the human lead it.

" _In Amsterdam there lived a Maid.  
Mark well what I do say!  
In Amsterdam there lives a Maid  
And she was mistress of her trade.  
I'll go no more a rovin'  
with you fair Maid._"

The Captain started, the second and two last lines being followed by the Vaporeon, as well as the following.

" _A rovin', a rovin'.  
Since rovin's been my ru-i-in.  
I'll go no more a rovin'  
with you fair maid._"

Dust could not stop himself from smiling and, while still walking, decided to join in the sea shanty in the next follow up, the Shinx's and Vaporeon's voices mixing and easy to hear all over the deck, as it was Will's. When that song ended, they took a few seconds to recover their breath, before Leonard this time, started leading another shanty.

" _Come all you young sailor men,  
listen to me.  
I'll sing you a song of the  
fish in the sea.  
And it's..._"

He started leading to be followed by the other two, the three in synch.

" _Windy weather, boys,  
stormy wheather, boys.  
When the wind blows,  
We are all together, boys;  
Blow ye winds westerly,  
blow ye winds, blow;  
Jolly sou'wester, boys,  
steady she goes._"

And Leonard kept leading the song. Of course, this just chained one song after another, taking turns into leading the songs and the next one was Dust the one who lead it.

" _Weigh-hay and up she rises  
Weigh-hay and up she rises  
Weigh-hay and up she rises  
Early in the morning!_"

As he started, the other two caught the song and followed immediately, and then let him lead.

" _What will we do  
with a drunken sailor;  
What will we do  
with a drunken sailor;  
What will we do  
with a drunken sailor  
Early in the morning!_"

And this, the three of them kept at it, singing more and more, with only some seconds to recover their breath and let one of the others lead the next song.

Eric lifted his head and the sound of the singing, and hummed along, even though he didn't know the song, and resumed his small walk towards where Nox was sitting, extremely annoyed. "Hey, got a minute?" The Eevee's presence made the Vulpix jump up from his spot, a little surprised by the Riolu's forwardness, thinking for a second that it was Emily herself talking… but he then remembered that it wasn't her and visibly relaxed.

"Uuuh… yeah, sure. What is it?" He asked, not really sure what Eric of all pokémon wanted to talk about.

"I know this whole experience is being a little taxing on all of us, so I'm just checking if everyone's alright… make some time for this trip to be over, because I am bored as all hell." Eric admitted, which made the latest addition to the team laugh.

"Wow, you're the last pokémon I'd expect to come over here to talk with me. I'd suggest you go and "talk" with Elly, but you aren't in your respective bodies, so that's sort of out of the question." He laughs at his own joke, whilst Eric simply rolls his eyes.

"Of course you'd go down **that** road…" The formed Riolu muttered. "And besides, she says she wanted to talk with the other girls… She's been hanging out with them a lot." He sounded worried when he said that last part.

"Do I hear jealousy in your voice? I mean, I don't think Elly is that into females if you two made it official already…" Nox couldn't wipe that huge smile off of his face. And once again, made Eric glare at him, a little annoyed. The Houndour raised his paws as if he was being held at gunpoint. "Hey, I can barely make those types of jokes with Miss "No-fun-allowed" over here." He moves his head in Luna's direction, alluding to the true owner of his current body as a killjoy.

"You know? I too have to tie my paws." She answered to this statement since she was being included into their conversation.

"Well, you still don't have to be such a massive pain in the ass. I mean, I told you already I'm not going to do anything to myself, the thought of it is just wrong in my head, and I already see more than enough when I go to the toilet… which is **really** weird, by the way." He said, making Eric barely hold in a laugh, agreeing that those moments were incredibly awkward.

Luna just sighed. "Okay." She said. "You know when you are not boasting or being a prick, it's actually enjoyable to be around you. Want time to yourself? We could both use some of that." And with that she stood and started to walk. "I'll leave you two to talk alone." She said and just like that she was gone. True to her word, she had spent enough time with Nox to get more of him… in a way, and decided that a little trust was in order so she was thinking on leaving him alone, but she felt she needed an excuse to do it and Eric's timing was perfect.

Eric looked at her walk off. "Huh… she actually left you alone. Impressive. It means that either you managed to piss her off completely or you're actually turning into a respectable male." The former Riolu joked, the Vulpix appreciating the implied praise.

"Hey, what can I say? Deep down, I'm actually an alright guy… Sometimes. Anyways, I'm not that type of person to actually do that type of stuff with a body that isn't mine… Dust, on the other paw… Lucy would have a field day with him." He left it hanging there, Eric raises an eyebrow, skeptical, and the former Houndour rolled his eyes. "Ok, I've done my own share of exploration when she wasn't looking, but as Jake would put it, 'It was simple curiosity, like that of a kit'. And hey, I bet you've actually done it as well." Even if the fire type used the aforementioned Sneasel's words, it didn't work, albeit Eric couldn't help but laugh at his attempt.

"Yeah, it doesn't work if it comes from you, Nox. Anyways, I'm not like you Nox, that thought doesn't cross my head… and I've got a mate for all of that stuff, unlike you." The Eevee smiled more and more as Nox's eyes rolled back slowly, then groaned, laying on his back.

"You know, I thought you came here to actually talk, not give me third degree burns, ye bastard." Both he and Eric laughed at that one, since it was actually a clever pun at the time. The Vulpix reincorporated himself, now facing a slightly concerned Eric.

"You're ok, right? After what happened a couple weeks ago, with Emily and Dust…" Eric began speaking, but he had already expected the Vulpix to do something to stop him from going any further.

"I've gotten over it, ok? Besides… it was just me being a dumbass and… trying to imitate someone. I just… don't think about it, alright? I don't think about it when I do it, before or after the fact, so… please, let's just drop it, and maybe one day I'll finally learn what to do with all of this…" Eric didn't press on, knowing that the former Houndour had been affected much more than it had shown. The duo kept on talking about more trivial matters and laughing together, as odd as it may have seemed to those who knew them.

Elly walked out of the inside of the boat and stretched her arms, looking around for something to do or someone to talk with. She saw Luna storm by, and right before she could ask, she heard the Vulpix's laugh coming from somewhere else, and turned that way to look at Eric and Nox talking together. She turned her attention to Shade and Natalie, who had gotten out of the inside of the boat to take some fresh air and were talking together, and walked over to them to join into their conversation as they started talking about rather silly things.

Jake was sitting on the hammock that was to be his bed if it came to it that night, reading a book for the fifth time, a little bored, and finally Serge was… being himself in Luca's body. He was lying on his side on top of the Captain's Cabin, the chimney right behind him. He was just trying to get some sleep and rest, whilst being perched up in the highest spot…

Luca was worried. She knew Serge liked high places, but first, her paws didn't hold onto where he usually perches to rest, and two, her body is not for sleeping standing. And not knowing how he was and with no way of knowing since she couldn't see him, it had her walking around the cabin dying of anxiousness.

"Hey… Everything okay, Hun?" Hadrim asked as he came to her after seeing her walking around that way and she explained him her worry. "Don't worry so much, he'll be carefull. Why don't you walk with me? Might help you calm your nerves a bit." He proposed her calmly. "Why don't we go see how the others are doing?" He asked. After some thought she decided to trust him and went with her mate, however…

"Oi! Serge! You better stay away from the ledges!" She shouted, the former Pidgeot cracking open an eye and looking down at himself.

"Hey, it took me a solid twenty minutes to get up here, don't ruin this for me! I'm telling you, if you keep bothering me I'll start striking poses again, and this time they won't be as decent, you got that?!" He warned, closing his eyes and turning to face away from her, which made Had chuckle slightly to then start to walk around the deck once again, stopping with everyone they encountered and advising an area for Lucy to go to try and have her stomach a bit more settled.

"Poor girl. First time's always the worst." Luca commented.

"Well being on the front of the boat doesn't help either. You know how bouncy it is up here." He said laughing a bit. "Only those with strong stomachs can endure a trip in the front!" He said puffing out his chest proudly, the Zorua's collar of fur getting bigger. Zed and Lucy looked at them and decided to back away from the edge, Zed leading Lucy back to the cabin where they had their bunkbeds.

Luca giggled for this. "You talk about strong stomachs?" She asked in a teasing tone. "Do I have to remind you how much did you have to spin before you let out your breakfast that time?" She teased, using a talon to poke at his belly and make him lose his boasting pose, and he too laughed.

"Oh, you had to bring that up, don't you?" He mocked offense, lowering his head and looking at her with his head sideways.

"Then don't go around boasting about a strength you don't have." She answered and both of them laughed a bit afterwards.

 **(Ray: From here on search and listen: Pokémon X/Y - B/W Emotion theme HD (Official))**

The sun was starting to set and the blue of the sky was turning into orange. Not even their actual situation could break this moment for them when Had sit down and kept looking forwards to the oncoming sunset.

"Have I told you how glad I am that Ekans tried to eat me?" He asked her and Luca just smiled.

"No. Why is that?" She decided to follow, knowing he wanted to say it.

"Because if not, then I wouldn't have met the one that would be my chosen to spend the rest of my days with." He answered and she had to suppress a squeal for this, yet smiled warmly at him, and the two started remembering those days. How Had, being an Eevee, was almost scared of everything human related, jumping at the tiniest of things. Or even when he started circling the TV looking for the anchorman that was 'trapped inside' as he said. Until Dani had to save the aparat from falling flat on the floor because of the little curious Eevee pup, who dashed away into hiding for this. But not all were his misadventures, he reminded her of one time he took her out on those days and the trouble she had being outside the perimeter of the household or the paths. Her survival skills were null and, honestly, she was afraid of the wild and easily scared. Both remembered that day and how it went. How both of them got lost because of a little bug and the scolding they got from the three humans when they came back to the house by midnight. And how they ended up growing to each other so much that when he went back with his pack he just couldn't do anything right and she glued herself to a window, looking into the forest.

Now here they were… with a swapping problem, yes, but together, enjoying the sight of the twilight and the fresh sea breeze, he leaning on her and she with a wing over him. Just then, passing behind them, was Emily, strolling by in Dark's body and showing off her new "cool" body, and she passed by them as they said this, looking at them and tempted to say they looked even sappier than Eric and Elly, but she restrained herself and just walked off, trying to go find someone else to boast in front of.

"Shade." Natalie called to the Eevee in a moment that the both of them and Elly ran out of conversation. "I wanted to ask…" She was trying to find the words for her question. "It's about Radius and…" She didn't need to tell anything more, since the Eevee knew what she was going to ask.

"He… has had a bad experience with an evolutionary stone." She said. "You see when Ichiro, Dust, Radius and myself were going to start this journey, getting all the badges and all, before Ichiro's heart problem made presence for the first time, Ichi gifted Radius a Thunderstone, knowing he wanted to become a Jolteon so deeply. Of course, Rad was as happy as a clam. He immediately touched the stone. Everything happened, the stone cracked, his body absorbed the electricity within it… However… nothing more happened, the Thunderstone without power became a simple pebble and… Well, look at me, do you see a Jolteon?" She asked, Natalie didn't move her head, but her ears went low. "Worst of all is that his body would not absorb any other stone so… We settled on that his failing at evolving left him unable to evolve at all. He was depressed. He refused to get out from under Ichiro's bed for anything for days. We thought he had gotten over it but… It seems that it still is hurting him a lot." She ended, remembering how he snapped at Lucy. Elly nodded as she understood why that all had gone down the way it had, and told herself to at least explain it to her friend so that she didn't hold anything towards Radius… because only Arceus knew that when she said 'It's alright' she was internally storing everything in order to pay them back twofold. She **seriously** had a problem with that, but Elly could live with it.

 **(Ray: Music ends here. Smile or cry? Both maybe?)**

* * *

Some hours later, it was almost dinner time, they had arrived at Zalkar, however the Captain told them that he couldn't get permission to make it to the port, since the docks were all occupied for the night, so they'll have to wait until they got a spot the next morning. Both the Kaiser and Team Star were at their things while dinner was being made for them all. Dark had woken up just an hour before this and had seen Leonard diving into the water and then jumping back on deck with some fishes in his mouth. They had some fish it seemed, and Will was the one cleaning and preparing it, since the Vaporeon had gone to their room after he got the fish to the man.

All of the Team Star members looked away and politely "declined" the sailors' offer. "Sorry, we're uh… Vegetarian." Elly explained quickly, having to elude the fact that they were from a world where cannibalism wasn't appropriate, and there weren't animals to eat… Thankfully, the duo had stocked up on some vegetables and fruits whilst they had been docked, so they didn't go without eating dinner that night.

"We ought to eat fruits in order to prevent scurvy, but we'll have to stock up again when we git to port in Zalkar… It be dangerous to approach the coast at night, so we'll have to stay out in the sea for the night." These news didn't really affect many of the pokémon, with the exception of Radius and Lucy, whose faces paled at the thought, definitely not looking forward to the night. Dinner was quite uneventful, albeit Lucy definitely had some troubles keeping the food inside of her, and then both Team Star and the Kaiser went to their cabin, whilst Will and Leonard went to their own. Serge thought that the enclosed spaces, the necessity for all of them to be sleeping in the same cabin, and the fact that they were on a ship were reason enough to tell a rather scary story he had "heard a long time ago", albeit anyone that could use common sense could tell he had come up with it.

"... the ghostly vessel slowly came to a stop besides the ship, and it's crew was horrified to see the rotting face of a woman, her face decomposed because of the water, one of her ears partially eaten by the fishes, and her skin bloated and infectious, giving her a ghastly appearance that mortified all the once brave men on that ship…" Everyone was listening to him, and although the story itself wasn't that terrifying, his descriptions were definitely on point.

"She opened her mouth slowly, a viscous murky liquid trailing down from the corners of her mouth as she mouthed the words, slowly: 'It seems that you are to become part of my crew… and haunt the seven seas with I, Captain Valeria!', and laughed as she lunged at the sailors, the rest of her rotting crew following suit…" He was even mimicking what the ghost sailor's voice sounded like. "And then the ship, and it's crew, were never seen again… humans and pokémon alike. They say that their spirits wander the seven seas aimlessly… seeking more members for their crew…" The story was reaching its climactic end, with Zed and Lucy shaking like leaves together, just like Dark was, trying and miserably failing at keeping himself from it, claws digging on the floor, ears subconsciously lowered and tail swinging back and forth uncomfortably. Shade was leaning on Radius, trying to think on pretty things while her brother fought to keep dinner inside, too busy to pay attention to that story, whilst Eric and Elly were sitting together with a smirk on their faces, Nox holding back laughter whilst he looked at Zed and Lucy, whilst trying to comfort Emily, who was just as scared, and finally Jake was… being himself, lying on his hammock and with his eyes closed.

"Aaaand… if someone, in the middle of the night, as the moon shines down into the murky infinite depths of the vast sea, knocks four times on your cabin door, and then slowly opens? You will soon join the crew of the ghostly Captain Valeria!" And as he shouted this he spread his arms, trying to look as scary and intimidating as possible, and it was at that precise moment that there was a loud knock on the cabin door, scaring the hell out of everyone in the cabin. Zed and Lucy both screamed and rushed under one of the bunk beds with amazing speeds, Emily cowered and covered her head with her claws, and even Elly jumped up and turned to face the entrance, Eric trying his hardest to wrap a paw around her, even though she was much bigger than he was. Dark gave a jump that let him dangling from the ceiling of the cabin… ok no, he just jumped onto all fours letting out a slight barked yelp with his fur all puffed up. Natalie's head jerked directly to the door, her thoughts stopped for the moment. Shade hid her head under Rad's chest, right between it and his right foreleg, Hadrim and Luca were laying together on one of the bunkbeds, curiously looking at the door now.

"If we end up joining a phantom crew you'll have an eternity of suffering, Serge." Hadrim joked, knowing that at least one of them was going to go for his neck. Said one being Luna, who hid under their improvised bed, shaking and she had even snatched a sheet to throw over her. Let's be honest it was ammusing seeing the proud female scared out of her skin.

What's with being a Prankster? No fun when you have a gold chance and let it escape. Dust had gone to get some water to drink and he came back by the time Serge started the last part. When he finished telling it, Dust just couldn't help it. Holding back his laughter he knocked four times slowly and then opened the door after managing to have an even face, just to stop when he found everyone looking at him.

"What? Do I have something on the face?" He asked, having a hard time not laughing at their faces.

"You bastard! You were listening from outside, weren't you?!" Nox inquired, still trembling from the jumpscare.

"Hey, if a door is closed it's just polite to **knock** before you go in." Dust answered him as his lips curved into a held back smile and putting some emphasis in what he said.

"Duuuust…" Lucy crawled out from under the bed, absolutely livid. "You're going to **pay** for this, you scumbag." She almost spit out, clearly angry with him, and she wasn't the only angry 'mon in the room, with Elly recovering her senses and Nox's eyes **literally** flaring up.

"Now, now. Let's not jump down anyone's necks…." Dark said with a nervous tone of voice, trying to calm them… and most of anyone, himself. "A prank is a prank after all and some of us need to stay as calm as possible." He added looking at Lucy and then towards Radius, who was trying to calm Shade so she came out of hiding.

What came to Dust's mind to say after that was simply too much to say, even for him since it would be laughing at their seasickness and he might be a perverted prankster but he's not that much of a jerk so he held it back and went to Emily and Nox, his step a bit hesitant at one point.

"I didn't get you too bad, did I?" He asked both of them. Emily was still cowering, but she cracked a smile.

"Well… I'll admit it, you got me…" She was trembling, but admittedly it had been funny, and Nox had been scared as well, but he wasn't as angry as the others. Serge. meanwhile, was laughing his ass off.

"That was brilliant. Arceus Dust, for a second you actually got me as well. Well done, kiddo." He said, giving the former shiny Riolu a thumbs up whilst Elly glares at the former Pidgeot.

"Don't encourage him!" Her screams only made the Pidgeot laugh harder.

Dust looked at her and smiled. "Don't take it out on him. I'm a prankster… literally." He said chuckling talking about his ability. "And to be honest… this was just golden." He added as he let out a clearly satisfied giggle.

After that he went to Luna, who was clearly out of herself, hell even when he called her she gave a jump that made her hit her head with the hammock, hitting Hadrim's belly for it. And Dust kept being a friend and started to try and calm her down.

"Well everyone. We better get some shut eye. Tomorrow we have a long searching to do." Hadrim said to them all, going to other place of his and Luca's bed and getting comfortable to sleep himself. The rest started to go to their beds as well, Eric and Elly trying to find a comfortable position in the which they could sleep and they could hug eachother without Jake's cold body bothering Eric, Zed and Lucy laid down on the mattress together, but neither could close their eyes, with the former Zorua looking at the cabin door, trembling, and the Shinx simply looking around as the boat swayed back and forth, and finally Serge walked over to where Nox and Emily were, cupping them both into his arms, even with their complains, and went to sleep in a sitting position, shaking Jake's hammock in the process, eliciting a groan from the former Sneasel. All of them went to sleep, except for Dust and Luna, who kept in her hiding spot as she refused to get out from under the covers. In the end he shook his head and sighed, laying down besides her.

"Then I'll stay here." He simply said, expecting that her pride got the best of her and for her to kick him away but instead… she said nothing, just stood there, laying down under the sheet, which was helping her hid quit a bright blush that had decorated her face right then. Emily, who hadn't fallen asleep quite yet, noticed Dust acting like a true gentleman, and couldn't help but smile and blush a little bit, imagining herself in that position with the Riolu.

Hours passed, and the cabin was filled with snores. Eventually however, a noise of someone getting up and leaving the room was heard, followed by another. The only one awake was Lucy, but she was too busy looking at the hammocks above her, where Eric and Elly slept together, to even appreciate who left. The hammocks were moving. Everything was moving. And it was **freaking her out really badly.** So much, that she accidentally woke up Zed from hugging him too tightly. "Hmmph! Wha- Lucy, you're crushing me!" Zed shouted in a loud whisper in order to not wake up anyone else, but the only thing Lucy did was force him to look upwards.

"Look at it Zed. Back and forth. **Back and forth.** It doesn't stop moving Zed, and it won't stop. This place is alive Zed, **alive** , and it's going to gobble us up and sink us to the bottom of this Arceus forsaken place!" She held him even tighter, whilst Zed didn't understand what she was saying, but he understood one fact.

"Lucy… you're really scared of ships, aren't you?" What followed was a flurry of words that Lucy started whispering at her mate, absolutely scared out of her wits. While this was unfolding, Dark woke up after being sleeping with his mouth open. His breathing left it dry and the Espeon jumped down from the bed to then go have a drink. He reached the kitchen and went to the sink, where he jumped and let the water flow, leaning on it to start drinking, half asleep still and ready to go back as soon as his thirst was quenched. His senses, being in the same state that him, missed completely the sound of steps of someone walking and the scent of someone close by.

Out from around the corner however, came something that he had never expected to see in his life. A white creature, long, wavy and with black ooze and tendrils came out of one of the doors, smashing against it as its many legs lead it towards Dark at high speeds, howling as it charged for the former Zoroark. Dark turned around hearing the loud noise and his eyes went wide. All traces of sleepiness washed away by fear as he let out an automatic scream and fell down to the floor, landing on his butt. The slight pain made him stop but when he looked again at the creature his fear spiked and evolved into full out panic.

Dark dashed out into the hallway and towards the room, where he slammed the door shut with a very loud 'bang' and then dived to hid under his hammock, awaking everyone in the process. Natalie awoke for the door's sound and looked at him, surprised.

"Dark? What the...?" She let out leaning down to try and see her brother, she didn't had time, though, as the creature suddenly burst into the cabin and gave out a blood curdling screech that scared the hell out of everyone, including Jake, who jumped up from his hammock and face planted on the floor. Elly, who had been awakened, screamed in horror as the creature came in, Zed straight up fainting and Lucy screaming even louder than her friend. Eric and Nox were definitely startled as well, but they were both still, frozen by fear. Natalie also let out a loud scream and backed away, her hammock rolling and making her fall over her brother. Hadrim and Luca were speechless to this. Luna, who decided to stay the whole night under her sheet, didn't even dare take a peek out and she leaned more on a frozen and shaking Shinx by her side.

"Is there room in there?" he asked her with a shaky voice. Shade and Radius were still together, the Eevee trying to hid behind the Houndour after joining the chorus of screams and for once, Rad could forget about his seasickness as it all seemed to settle down because of this. He too was startled and looking at the thing, but with Shade behind him he stood and took on a bit of an aggressive stance, even if he was shaking, tail and ears down in fear. The creature paced around the room, screaming into evereyone's faces at least once and then moving to another spot whilst roaring.

Eventually however, the its screams turned into roaring laughter as it fell over, the blanket falling away and revealing a laughing Lucario and Zoroark, both of them with tears streaming down their faces, unable to hold back their laughter anymore. Both of them had started chuckling as soon as Dark had run away like a little kit, but the moment they had burst in and screamed, and in reaction got everyone that scared they just couldn't hold it anymore as both started crying and eventually laughing.

"Arceus! That was so good!" Serge roared between his cackles, slamming his feet and fists on the ground, unable to relax one moment, whilst Emily was swaying back and forth and holding her sides, which hurt really bad. Their companions' reactions were quite different, with Eric having a slight smirk on his face, until he realized that Elly was gritting her teeth, imagining as if she had steam coming out of her ears. Zed was still unconscious, and Lucy was standing on four legs and panting heavily, whilst Jake groaned annoyed and climbed back to his hammock, kicking the pole violently in the process, something that Nox actually found hilarious.

"Serge you motherfucker son of a bitch!" Radius spat at the Lucario, letting himself down. Shade looked over her brother and the others just stared mostly at him with eyes that wanted to kill! All except two of them, the whom Dust and Natalie were trying to calm down to the best of their abilities. Dark was still shaking, using his ears to cover his face and his paws to keep them covered, while Luna refused boldly to come out of her hiding.

"You lunatic bastard! Are you insane?! You could've killed us!" Elly was tearing into the hammock with her claws just by looking at the duo, but they ignored her and kept laughing, whilst the former Eevee looked at her mate in distress, unsure of what to do. He rolled his eyes and looked at the two laughing pokémon.

"Yeah, you better laugh, but I'm going to remind you that eventually you're both going to have a devilish Shinx trying to give you controllable… ok, rather uncontrollable shocks. So… yeah, better enjoy the moment. I wouldn't want to be in your hide!" He warned them about what would eventually happen, and just looked at Lucy's **extremely** wide grin. She looked at Eric.

"Ok, now I understand why you want your body back so bad." She said this is a tone that was similar to Jake's own. Emily looked at her, a little nervous.

"It was all Serge's idea!" She screamed, and the Lucario looked at her, mocking betrayal, but he came up with an excuse and stood up, clearing his throat and standing straight.

"Well… in reality I was doing this with the best of my intentions: You see, Emily was extremely scared after I had finished my narration, and the poor gal just could not enter the realm of slumber… And as such, it was weighing on my consciousness…" As he kept talking, everyone else was looking at him, giving him the "you're horrible at lying" look.

"Yeah, it's going to weigh down on you alright… weight so much I'm going to send you to the bottom of the ocean, you knucklehead." Elly muttered under her breath, Eric's eyes widening in surprise.

"... and neither could I fall asleep, and it was at that precise moment that I came to a realization: 'Why, if she is the monster, then what is there that she should be afraid of? It will be the perfect way to cure her condition, for sure, there's no way it wasn't granted!'" Even quoting his own words wasn't redeeming himself, neither was the fact that he had somehow rhymed. "And so, we gathered a blanket, put two holes in it, and grabbed seaweeds and the like, and then we rushed here to give you a good scare! And sure enough, it has cured her fear!" With that he points at Emily with both of his paws, smiling broadly as she raises her own arms and smiles.

Everyone gave them deadly looks. "You're both hella fuckin' dead" Nox pointed out the obvious with a wide smile on his face.

Radius had his nerves altered for this. The former Eevee wanted to say something, to scream at the wicked prankster possessing his mother's body. However, when he decided to open his mouth he had to close it… and ran out of the room.

"There goes dinner." Dust was the one to talk. "You know if the Captain finds out you made holes in his things **you** will have to pay him for them, right?" He then said to the Lucario. Meanwhile, Luca had gone out of the cabin too to go with her other son to lend him a… wing.

Serge waved him off. "He won't notice. They aren't that big anyways, I've got good eyes!" He was mostly trying to reassure himself.

"So you did this to try and help Emily be able to sleep?" Natalie asked. "The only thing that could work would be making her completely relax. Don't think going around pranking everyone will accomplish that, even if laughing is a great therapy for around every sour mood." She said, just wanting to say something while she kept a paw over Dark's back and waited.

Elly wasn't going to have anymore of this, neither was Lucy. In a true display of friendship, the two former females jumped up and lunged at the duo, looking absolutely terrified of the two lunging pokémon. "Wait no, no **noooooooooo**!" The rest of the night was filled with thumps and groans of pain from both of the pranksters and Rad had to spend the night out in the back of the ship while Dark fell asleep cowering under the hammock.

* * *

The next day they arrived to port at midday, everyone but the Captain and Leonard feeling completely exhausted and spent. When questioned about the previous night's shenanigans, Will and the Vaporeon denied having heard anything or waking up, the rest of the pokémon deducing that the duo probably wouldn't wake up even if a bomb went off besides them. Either way, they still had to explain what had happened, because the many lumps and bruises on Serge's and Emily's foreheads were quite noticeable. Either way, the duo of sailors promised to wait for their return, since they wouldn't move from Zalkar for at least a few days, and the group walked off into the seaside town. It wasn't a city but even if it was, there was a huge difference with Ebony Port.

Here, to begin with, the houses, shops and stands were on the ground and the only trees that grew up were in the house's fronts or backyards. The house were made of bricks but their roofs were made of wood. the roads lead to around everywhere. And other big difference was the presence of vehicles here and there. Cars, trucks and even motorbikes. Some still by the houses and others moving around. Each house was similar to the others if we talk about construction, but each had a different colour. One was yellow, other was purple, some repeated colours. Of course the place had some people and pokémon going on about their things. They could even see a human male holding on his arms a young Growlithe that was snuggling up to the human, both of them with warm smiles. Here and there, Poochyena, Mightyena, Growlithe and Arcanine, some Mienfoo and Mienshao and even a couple of Zoroark hand with hand with a little human pup, who had a Zorua on her head. This place gave out a nice homey and family feeling, even if there was the eventual loner or some couples arguing, but sadly that happens everywhere.

They walked calmly and no one got on their path… Except a drunk man that approached Emily saying things about Pokémon that must be caged in their pokéballs, that the streets where for humans, as well as the ownership of business. Dust got in front of her in a moment but didn't growl not bared his fangs, just wanted to keep some distance between the human and Emily.

"Heyyyyy dere litte thinnnnnng…" The man said, the stench of alcohol being clear even at the distance he was from the Shinx, and was about to make another remark about them being beasts that should be encased, but before things escalated too much, another man approached them and took the drunk bastard. The man had pale skin, and dark purple coloured hair. His eyes were a bright red colour. He was wearing a buttoned plain white shirt and dark green trousers with a black belt without pokéballs, complete with a pair of black shoes. He had no rings or necklace and didn't seem like someone that usually wears accessories.

"You should stop verbally abusing the Pokémon before you get really kicked out of town, Jones. Go home before you faint in the middle of the street with your fucking poison you call vodka." The man said, pushing the drunken man away.

"Hey… no yeed to me sho harsh, mmmy g-g-good shir… hic! I'll begon nau." and with that he went away.

After this the man bowed at them and muttered an apology before going away and leaving the group to their schemes, glaring back at them as he turned the corner.

They stopped by a pokémon owned restaurant, something that pleasantly surprised Team Star, and after they had a rather quick lunch, they remained around the table and crafted a plan through the island.

"I'd say we walk along the coast, keeping the water in sight." Hadrim proposed after they were all sitting around a table. Elly nods in agreement.

"Yeah, it would be our best chance to find Leopold… Oh thank you." She thanks a waiter that brings a small plate with a brownie and happily munches on it. As the rest discuss their planning Eric looks at her, slightly worried.

"You're developing a knack for chocolate, and it's starting to worry me…" The former Riolu didn't know how to put it, but he knew that whatever he said it was going to earn him quite a reaction from the Sneasel. She slowly turns to face him, a small bit of brownie falling from her lip.

"What do you mean with that?" She asks accusingly, Eric realizing that he should think out his next words… or they would end up having an argument over something like that.

"Well… uh… Nothing, it's just that… We haven't been doing much exercise, and you could… you know… get out of shape." It was useless, as anyone who was chiming into the conversation could tell the Riolu was boned.

"Oh yeah?! Well, better watch your words or I'll crush you!" Elly suddenly barks back and eats the rest of her brownie in one go, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looking frustrated. Eric raises a paw, but drops it as he knows he doesn't have anything to say.

"Never get between a damsel and her likings. You'll lose a limb if you do." Dust exaggerated at this while he was pondering what else to do. Elly glared daggers at the former Riolu, as she didn't want to hear **anything** about her likings.

"Well. This isn't exactly the place for a scene either way, let's get back on topic, please." Hadrim asked them. "Then we follow the shore and keep an eye for Leopold. Now… talking about supplies- Uuuuuh! thanks!" He stopped as soon as a bowl of fruit was in front of his face and dug in, making the rest look at him funny since he was the first that wanted to get seriously into this conversation.

Serge looks at him, raising an eyebrow. "Nice example.. Anyways, let's recap: We walk along the coast, find this Lugia and ask him to take us to the temple, did I get that right?" He asks, Jake nodding.

"Correct. This plan seems to be volatile, but I can not think of any better alternatives… asking other self conscious creatures for clues on the Lugia's location is unfortunately a luxury we can not permit ourselves, but even then that would probably not yield results of importance to our case." The Sneasel quickly goes over all the information they have from the top of his head, once again giving them a demonstration of his memory.

"As someone was saying… about supplies… how much shall we get?" Luca was the one to complete her mate's question seeing as he was diving into his food.

"I think we could use some berries, vegetables… and if you guys want something like pastries or bread, I guess that's an option… oh, and some chocolate for Mrs. Fatty over there." Lucy points at Elly accusingly, everyone in the table covering their mouths and doing 'Ooooooh!' whilst the former Eevee looks at the Riolu.

"Wow. You're actually the worst pokémon ever, you know that?" Elly asks half-jokingly, a bit mad that she's being made fun of because she likes chocolate.

"And you're the worsest friend ever. Payback for letting me smash my head on the railing yesterday, Nymphe!" Lucy flails an arm around and does a silencing motion whilst Elly bites her lower lip, not willing to admit that she had gotten her. But revenge would be incredibly sweet… like chocolate. Still though, that last word got everyone making the same noise again, whilst Elly and Lucy both cracked smiles, knowing that this was just all banter and didn't mean any of it. The joke on the name and the creature they're alluding to is lost to all who didn't know her.

"Leave paybacks for when we are alone, will you?" Dark asked calmly while he just had a salad this time and a bowl of fresh vanilla milkshake.

"Anyways. Back to topic, guys! Going around asking would give us a lot of places to look over where people and pokémon had seen him. This would make us walk around the island following just rumors." Natalie said, leaving for a moment her orange pokepuff and licking her lips.

"Nox, stop it!" Zed smacks the Vulpix's paw away as he tries to nab the small piece of bread he has left, then turns to look at the Eevee. "Then we should just look for Leopold and not bother with anything else, right? I mean, how hard can it be to find a legendary?" He naively asks.

All of the Kaiser household looked at him. "Well unless they want to be seen by us… we could never see them." Luna said. "But maybe with someone as lucky as you we might go into a cave to rest and turns out he's there taking a nap." She teased lightly, giggling and there were some that sniggered at this.

Zed shied away and became a ball of blue fur, triggering everyone to laugh at the poor guy. After the settled down on that, lunch was paid and they were off to travel around the coast.

Hours of conversation and laughing later, the group made a short stop in a forest nearby, all of them doing their own little thing, and in particular, Emily decided to sneak away, her thoughts focused on Dust. She just couldn't get that whole event from a week ago out of her head, as it kept coming back to her each time she looked at either Nox or Dust. She had talked with Nox a little bit before, and they had both agreed that they shouldn't let it drag them down too much… but she hadn't had the chance to talk with Dust before, but there were other things about him that just seemed to make her… feel weird. He had been acting pretty nicely as of late, and had been really polite.

As she was pondering about this, the aforementioned Riolu had seemed to be following her.

"You're getting better at sneaking." He joked a bit. A tad bit of a lame excuse for a conversation opener. She yipped and jumped up, looking at him as she hadn't been expected for him of all pokémon to follow. Dust had seen her getting away from the group and decided that this would be another chance to talk to her, as it was when he tried to help her sleep two nights ago, but, just like then, his throat closed at the topic and he had to force everything out. "I… I wanted to talk about… that day." He finally managed to say but struggled a bit on the task. "I may have said that I'm sorry about a million times already, haven't I?" He chuckled nervously and sat down, breathing as calmly as he found himself able to do. Why was it so hard to just say it? He just had to open his mouth and talk, that was all. But even back then he knew exactly why it was so hard to do. "Okay, please listen… I… I don't have anything against you or Nox." He started. "Is just…" Here he sighed.

 **(** **Ray: For this part seek and listen to Hmong Sad Love Soundtrack it should be the first one on the list** **)**

"They say time heals all wounds, right? Well… sometimes it just doesn't happen… I had a best friend, that I developed a crush on. However, one that she was attracted to asked her first. I was… okay with it? She was my friend and was happy so I was too. Or at least, I thought so. The thing is, one day she came to the household and told me that he had cheated on her and when she confronted him he was a fucking ass to her, so she came to me for comfort. That night he came. He was a Quilava, never bothered to catch his name. He got into the house and demanded to see her. I denied him and was ready to fight him off, but she stopped me and went with him to talk. A few minutes later she hadn't come back, call it a gut feeling or whatever you want, but I got worried and nervous, so I ran off and looked for them, fearing that something had happened. When I found them he was beating shit out of her, insulting her and..." He drops that line with a hint of anger in his voice, Emily covering her mouth in horror as he takes a breath, trying to cool himself off.

"I ran at him and got him off of her. We got into a fight and I managed to send him away with a broken leg, then I went to her and I ran as fast as I could to get help. I got home and Clara and Mom helped her and then we went to the town's Pokemon center." At this point he tensed, eyes watery and he was trembling. "She didn't make it through the night. When I saw her again she was completely covered! I never got to tell her about my feelings after I realized them! I was too late… for everything…" He stopped a bit to recover, even then, the tears were flowing down his face, as he could again talk a bit more calm. "After that night I swore that I would become stronger. I convinced myself that she died because I was too slow to get her to help in time. So I saved some money and then I went away to train. And six months after I was back home to find you all." As he finished his chilling story, Emily felt some tears running down her face. She hadn't expected such a tale from the ever carefree, happy-go-lucky Dust… but here he was, holding back tears and bent over from the pain the memory caused him.

"So… when Nox got that aggressive… he reminded you of that Quilava…" It made sense in her head why he had gotten that mad instead of trying to solve the situation by talking… but she felt like there was something else. Something he just wasn't telling her.

"Actually, it was as if it was all happening again." At that moment when he confronted Nox, his own eyes and memories played a trick on him that made him see the Quilava instead of Nox, and Dust, even after fighting him away, still wanted revenge, so the lucid memory made his blood boil and he snapped.

 **(** **music ends here… or you can listen it to the end** **)**

For almost a full minute, an awkward silence surrounded them. "Remember that you asked me which of all the females I like?" He asked out of the blue, looking at her. "I am sure you still want to know it. Well, she's curious, cute, is getting better at sneaking around." He started to say, varying his words a bit from the last time he said them. "She is a pretty interesting female, too." He said and left it at that, wondering if she'll remember his words.

At that point it was a dead giveaway, Emily shying away and looking at him, a mad blush written all over his face. "Oh… oh… I… I knew there was something else going on… But… do you mean it? Not just… pervy stuff and teasing, but… really? You find me… interesting?" She was asking him a legitimate question, and expected a real answer.

"I find you interesting, cute, sweet…" He stopped there, not knowing what more to say as he too blushed hard for that. "Uhm well, I finally gave you my answer, now I ask you the same, is there anyone you… like **like**?" He asked her.

She opened her mouth to speak, but just couldn't find the right words she wanted to say, and she didn't want to talk around it. "Yes… Honestly, you have been behaving so nicely as of late, being so polite, and trying to be a friend and help others… I don't really know you that well, but… I think I want to get to know you better, you know?" She asked

His face had gone fully red the moment he heard the first 'you', yet he did listen to her. He was nervous again all of a sudden. "Oh… Em… Well…" He was out of words to answer to that, his mind in a race to find them as his mouth sputtered incomprehensible gibberish for a long moment there. Emily wasn't really sure of what to say, but the two of them were getting closer and closer to the other as time passed, and eventually they were both so close together that…

" **What are you two doing?!** " A voice came from the bushes, and out from there came an irate looking Riolu, both of them recognizing it as Lucy, who was in Dust's original body. She looked and acted livid, getting ahead of herself and assuming they had been doing some rather… questionable stuff with her body.

"Oh… We were just talking! Talking normally, nothing to see. Legit!" Emily shook her claws and tried to play it cool, but she was really nervous and anxious.

"What she says. We were just sitting here and talking, period." Dust said, not thinking they'll get out of there without her getting a go at them.

"What's going on here?" Came another voice and Dark stepped into the place. "What's with all the yelling?" He asked, looking at the three of them.

"These two… were about to make out… **with our bodies**!" Lucy screamed accusingly, her fur somehow standing up like a cat's, even though she was in Dust's body, incredibly angry with the duo. Out of all the pokémon, those two had to end up in her body and Dark's, making everything just… so much worse.

Hearing this, Dark looked at them. They were close and right now at least he could see that Dust was blushing brightly for what she said. "Wha-!? No wait! It's not that!" Dust tried to explain it.

"Don't bother, Dust." Dark said. "Come on, we're moving again and we were just waiting for you two to show up to keep going." The Espeon added.

"Come on, Dark! I swear we were just talking!" Dust kept saying.

"Then why so close as if you two were snuggling together?" The other male asks, leaving the Shinx out of words. Emily looks at Dust and they both back away slowly, blushing madly.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group were waiting for their four friends to come back. Natalie was laying down, her head was pulsing, giving her a mean headache. Luca was with her, while Hadrim was looking towards the shore they had in their view. No track of Leopold at all. This was going to be a long day. The Zorua turned around and started to head towards Luca and Natalie to ask how was she doing with that. However, walking that little distance, something caught his eye and made them open wide as his pupils shrank to little dots. It was little, it had wings and little legs… and posed right on top of his nose. A little moth letting its tired wings rest for a just a moment but that had the Zorua with his eyes almost crossed looking at it, and his breath accelerating and becoming erratic as panic built up in his body. Finally, the former Espeon let out a screech so loud that even some flying types flew away scared.

" **B-b-buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuug!** " He cried, the others having to cover their ears from the moment he opened his mouth to the instant he closed it just to prevent permanent damage to their hearing. He started shaking his head and pawing at his nose, eyes closed. After a moment he let himself fall and started to thrash around on the ground while constantly repeating. "Get it off! **Get it off**!" Hadrim was freaking out pretty badly. Thrashing, rolling and even hitting his snout against a tree. He kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see, fearing that thing would still be there. Had began running blindly. He charged straight at a confused Serge, who stepped out of the way to prevent the Zorua smashing head on and managed to fall on his back and into a bush, disappearing from view whilst Nox cackled at both the Lucario's condition and the Zorua's.

"Oh Arceus, no…" Luca groaned and went to her mate, only for him to dash away, smash into another rock and then begin digging and burying his head into the dirt, trying to burrow underground where it was supposedly safer, but he could only bury his head. "Had. Had! Calm down!" Luca yelled at him but her calls fell on deaf ears as he kept in his fit. The others meanwhile were looking at this, some surprised while others couldn't hold back some light laughs and others were plainly burning their lungs with laughter. Hadrim eventually calmed down and cracked open an eye as he pulled his head out of the hole. The moth was gone… but now instead he had a worm on his nose.

His expression turned to one of sheer distress as he screeched once more and ran straight into his mate, knocking her down because of her difficulty to maintain her balance and run over her, shaking his head enthusiastically trying to get the worm off, but it just wasn't letting up. Eric tried to be a hero, as always, and stepped in the middle to try and stop the rampaging Zorua, but forgot that he wasn't precisely in his body and was only run over by the bulldozer of a dark type, Elly quickly rushing to him as Hadrim left behind a cloud of dust. Had rushed away, crashing into everything in his way until eventually he discarded the worm… and ran into a cobweb, where he got a new friend in the form of a spider. He screamed as physically loud as possible and ran all the way back to the group, running up on an unnadverted Elly, who was also run over by him, leaving the couple on the ground feeling dazed, triggering Jake's anger whilst the entirety of the group roared with laughter.

"For the love of Arceus, someone put him out of his misery before he destroys the forest!" The former Sneasel shouted as loud as he could, but nobody could stop the panic machine that Hadrim had turned into, seeing that small daddy long legs spider making him go insane with the thought of the thing biting into his skin and poisoning him, even though in reality their fangs were so small they were unable to puncture his skin, eventually however, his panic reached such levels that when he saw the thing get off, he let out a sigh of relief before collapsing. The immediate vicinity was a complete mess, filled with broken bushes, smashed berries and small pebbles.

Thankfully however, the pokémon were mostly fine, with the exception of Eric and Elly, who were recovering from their encounter with the help of Jake, and Serge, whose body was filled with pricks and cuts from falling into a thorny bush, yelping in pain as he and Nox pull out small pricks one at a time. And as for Zed… Zed was at a loss for words, flabbergasted at what he had just witnessed, and wished he could just completely forget about it, but it was useless at that point, silently accepting that when he finally got back his body his face would hurt… a lot.

Radius was pawing his face because his cheeks hurt. He had tried to hold back his laughter but it was just too much to handle, one of the reasons being that he had never seen his father freak out like this. Shade was giggling madly still. Luna was paws up as she gasped for air after the laugh she had. "Oh! This just made my day!" She breathed out. Luca was covering her face in shame with her wings and Natalie… Natalie had just heard noises, her headache being too much to handle. At that point, the last four of the group arrived and seeing that mess, they looked at them all.

"Did we miss something?" Dark was the one to ask this… and it only made Luca groan again and harder; and Shade, Radius and Luna broke into another laughing fit. Dark looked at Lucy, Dust and Emily, Dust doing the same, and all four of them shrugged, unsure of what had happened, figuring they'd just ask their friends for the details… after they all calmed down.

After a moment, Dark saw Natalie and went to her, nuzzling her a bit. "Hey. You okay?" He asked as he saw her acting a bit strange.

"I'm not feeling fine. I got a massive headache. As if a bull and myself had had a headbut contest, with a clear loser." She said, now placing her paws over her head. "And all this noise doesn't help either." She said.

"Now now. Try to calm down." He said to her gently. "We'll find a place to rest so you can try and take a nap or something." He said and then rose his head, looking for someone that wasn't in a fit or something. In the end he asked if they could go find some shelter. "Looks like we have to stop the search for now. And don't you even dare start complaining, Jake. I'm not risking my sister's health!" The Sneasel had already lifted a claw to point out the obvious fact that they had to move… but was silenced by Dark's preventive shout.

"Well… uh… I saw a cave on our way here, so it could be a good place for us to rest… Hold on, I'll go check it out." Zed was the one to propose himself to explore, trying to act a little braver after what had gone down with Hadrim, Lucy about to say she wanted to go with him, but he told her to stay, which surprised her a great deal, albeit she understood that he was focused on helping someone who was potentially ill. The former Zorua marched back the way they came, since the cave wasn't too far away, and peaked inside. It didn't seem to be too big, albeit there were some rocks where they could lay down and rest… He stayed there for a bit to check everything whilst the others waited.

Now that was… a very strange series of events. Or at least it was to some since he seemed to not want to be away from Lucy at all... At least Dark was taken aback and stayed looking at him until he disappeared. "Okay. Something **big** must've happened for this to happen." Dust said, looking around at the finally calming down group.

"Dad plus Bugs. That's what happened." Shade answered her older brother with a little giggle, and this let him with his mouth agape.

"And I lost it!? Awwwww. Not fair!" He whined.

"Dust Shiny Riolu Kaiser. That better be a joke or you'll be sleeping on the playhouse this Winter!" Luca yelled at him, making him cringe for the use of his total name.

"You just got told!" Lucy shouted, a huge smirk on her face.

"Doh! Hush you jumping Horsea!" Dust said back, using her 'chess rules' against her as a nickname, whilst she simply glared at him and tapped her armband, making him whimper.

"Let the guy vent out a bit, Lucy." Radius defended his brother.

When Zed came back, everyone went to the cave. Dark was carrying Natalie over his back since she was even unable to stand without her headache getting worse than what it was. Once there he laid down and let her slip down by his side and he stayed there. Luca had done the same with a still shivering Zorua, setting him down and staying with him. Hadrim wasn't ashamed of being afraid of insects, what made him feel shame was the way he acts when he panics because of them, and right now he was as silent as a tomb.

"Well at least it was easier than trying to catch a non-stop-teleporting Espeon." Luca said, and he just lowered himself, wanting to be as small as one of those insects right now so he could hide somewhere. In reality, she was just trying to make him talk. And she managed to do so when she was about to comment that once he almost teleported into one of the bathrooms of the Shopping Center back at their town.

"Can we leave this topic, please? I feel ashamed enough for my behaviour and what I did to Zed." He finally snapped at her.

"There! You're almost back." She nodded and let the topic there.

"So… Why did we stop searching asides from… the obvious?" He asked, trying to change the topic.

"Natalie says she has a headache that's been bothering her all day and now it's worse and doesn't even lets her move." Shade said keeping a slightly low tone of voice. However, before anyone could say anything more, she talked again. "Do any of you catch that scent?" She asked raising her head and sniffing a bit around to locate from where was it coming.

Everyone looked around, not sure of what she meant, and even Zed was confused. Truth to be told, there was a rather… salty scent in that cave, as of they were right at the edge of sea, and all members of Team Star got images of their town, which was coincidentally, next to a beach with a cave which was oddly reminiscent of the one they were in. They looked around for a bit, and Jake was the first to catch a tiny blue thing quickly scurry behind the rocks and back into hiding. It was enough for him to sound the alarm and claim that there was another creature in the cave. Serge was next to catch a glimpse, a tiny blue creature hopping between rocks at really fast speeds.

"Hey, look at that." He pointed at the last rock behind the which the creature went by, and everyone faced him as he approached… and that was when a tiny Phione jumped straight at his face with a cute squeal, latching onto his muzzle. Serge screamed through his closed muzzle and fell back, thrashing around as he tried to get it off of him, unsure of what it was. The more knowledgeable pokémon in the cave, however, got a good idea of what it was.

"A Phione?" Radius asked, surprised. And Luna's eyes went directly towards Zed with a silent teasing expression on her face and a smirk on it as well. He doesn't notice her glare, a little distracted by the bouncing tiny blue pokémon.

"Well. We found someone unexpected. One of Kaylani's pups." Luca said letting out a chuckle. "I wonder what's it doing here, tho. They normally stick close to…" She said remembering what that one book about the legendaries said and trailed off at the end for a moment as the Phione hopped on top of her head and started clapping and dancing. Serge got up from the ground, ticked off at the intruder.

"Oh yeah?! Well get over here then and we'll return the bugger to its mother!" He shouted as he scrambled to get up and tried to catch the Phione. With surprising agility, it jumped above and away from the Lucario, both he and Luca crashing down to the ground with a loud thud. The Phione stopped on a rock, looking at them and giggling, then bouncing all over the place again.

"I think it wants to play with us…" Lucy pointed out, recognizing that type of behaviour from whenever kids were excited to play. She smirked as she took it as a personal challenge. "Then I'll be the one to nab this little guy! Here we g-" She started running, but only for about two feet before tripping on her step and slamming on the ground headfirst, having forgotten for a second that she was in Dust's body.

Dust made a funny face for this before going to her, about to ask her if she was okay when something light landed on his back. The little Phione smiling and jumping on him to then blind him with its little paws while with its antennae it held onto the Shinx.

"Hey! Let go!" Dust said, shaking to try and get the pup off of him, moving around to try and keep balance. Luna letting out some sniggers because of this, enjoying how a little kit was making a mess of the group.

"Hey! Why don't you try catch me?" Shade said to the Phione, getting into a playful position and wagging her tail, trying to lure the young Pokémon off of her brother. Meanwhile, certain Eevee was again holding her head and asking for silence in a low tone of voice as to avoid giving herself a worse headache.

The little thing wasted no time in jumping off Dust, making him fall over Lucy as he was near her and almost losing his balance with it on him; and tried to get a hold of Shade, who just sidestepped and giggled at it. Jake tried to lunge for the creature, but it was to no avail, as not even he could predict its erratic movements, and neither Elly nor Eric had a snowball's chance in hell to catch the little guy as it ran around, until it jumped right on top of Natalie's head.

Nat snapped. The headache, the noises and now this little pest bouncing on her head and increasing the pain to incalculable levels for her at that moment. Aside from that, Luna had started to tease Zed verbally for his luck again, Shade once more tried to take the little guy away while Dark was trying to avoid Serge picking up the pup by its head. She growled. " **Shut the fuck up!** " Natalie cried to everyone, standing up in her rage.

However, they didn't fell silent because she plain out demanded it. Something happened that took the voice of everyone away. As a force pushed everyone against the walls of the cave the moment she yelled, with the exception of Luna… who flew out of the cave. After this instant of losing her nerves, Natalie was about to scold them all about being quiet for a bit so she could rest but she didn't even got a chance to start talking, as she felt insanely tired and relieved at the same time. Her headache was gone but so was her energy it seemed, as she fell on her side and right after that she blacked out.

Elly stood back up the fastest. She had used enough of those the last few years to know what had just happened was. She didn't know how, or why, but Natalie had just blown them away with something akin to a psychic wave. An uncontrolled burst of psychic energy that had actually been quite powerful to send them all back… but she had been left without any energy after the fact, or at least that's what she had guessed. She was the first one to get over to the Eevee and check her breathing. She seemed to be ok, just exhausted and sleeping.

"Ok… What in Oblivion just happened?" Dark was the one to ask this as he recovered with a groan, getting some funny faces for his chosen words.

"From what I could tell, Natalie just used a large amount of psychic energy… which is amazing, considering that she's never showed any signs of having psychic powers, has she?" She asked the Kaiser family, legitimately confused as to what was going as well, even though she knew a lot about psychic powers.

"No… She has never shown any signs. Though I'd say this could be a step forwards to what she wants to become." Hadrim commented and then stood thinking. "Could it be…? You are used to use your psychic on daily basis, right?" He asked Elly now. "Maybe your body got pent up for not using them?" He proposed, it was an option, after all.

"Or maybe… since she was in my body for so long, it ended up bringing out her powers all on their own… either way, we'll have to look into it when we get back home, for now, our top priority is…" Before she could end that sentence however, she was interrupted as the little Phione began crying as loud as it could, a little bit hurt from hitting the wall and scared because of Natalie's burst of psychic energy. "Oh, poor thing…" Elly says, walking up to the small pokémon and picking him up in her arms, trying to sway him back and forth… but she only made it cry even louder. "What? What did I do?" She was legitimately confused, and Jake sighed.

"I believe it may have something to do with the fact that you are currently residing in my body… even if it pains to admit, it is true that I am not the most affectionate looking member in the team… albeit it is reaching ridiculous levels with all that has been happening… and now this." He concluded his little rant as Elly handed the Phione to Serge, saying that maybe since he was in Luca's body he had a higher chance of calming it down… but it had basically the same result as Elly, simply because of the fact the guy just didn't know what to do with the Phione other than swing it around, getting frustrated quickly.

"Dude, I'm garbage with kids… Making them though… now that's something I'm good at!" His little joke triggered gags and his companions booed him while the Kaiser just looked at him for a moment and shook their heads sighing, Dust let out a "Really bro?" and Shade and Radius feigned not having heard anything.

"Oh shut up, you dirty bird brain and give me the Phione." Lucy restrained herself from saying any swears, both Nox and Eric refusing to even test their luck, the former because he just knew he'd do just as bad, or even worse than the former Pidgeot, and the latter because he was scared of scaring it even more.

While they were passing the pup around, Dark had gone to his sister's side. Relieved that she was fine but even then he was slightly worried and at that moment he just wanted to go back and be done with this. He kept laying by her side for a moment, thinking. He wanted to let her rest but surely the others will want to keep going and get rid of this situation. On top of that on his list was that now they had a little kid from the one they were looking for. ' _Oh please. I don't want more messes! Let's hope Miss Kaylani doesn't take this the wrong way._ ' He thought, starting to get stressed and thinking on the worst situation possible but he kept silent. When he realized that he was getting paranoid over this all, he shook those thoughts out of his head and went back to think on what to do if they wanted to get on the move when the kid calmed down.

Eventually, Lucy grew tired and she looked at Zed with hopeful eyes. The Riolu looked at everyone else in the cave, and sighed as she waved at Lucy to hand him the Phione delicately. He picked it up carefully and gently cupped it into his arm before moving it back and forth slowly, humming a tune as he did. He was doing it as calmly and as slowly as possible, sitting on a rock as he focused on the little pokémon, and slowly but surely it calmed down, looking at the Riolu curiously. He moved a paw to rub the Phione's stomach, making it giggle, which in turn made Zed smile, continuing to play with the little Phione by rubbing his nuzzle on its chest and making silly faces.

The Phione eventually left his arms and began jumping and dancing again, hugging the Riolu affectionately, which made most of the pokémon look at the little thing with tender eyes and some comments about how cute that scene was.

"Would you see that? Someone has nice paw with puppies." Shade said giggling slightly but warmly. "I dare say another is lucky." She added looking at Lucy. The duo of Riolus blushed brightly at her words.

"He's just… really good with kids, specially really young… but we don't really get that many opportunities where we're around them long enough for him to shine… I guess that ability finally came in handy." Lucy happily informed them, whilst Serge rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I think it was a combination of the two, you know?" He didn't truly mean it, but his comment was received with glares from basically everyone, and he just sighed and dismissed them with his paw. "Nevermind, I didn't say anything at all…" After that, everyone rested for a bit whilst Zed played around to keep the Phione entertained, playing "Peek-a-boo" or trying to catch the little guy, to no avail, of course, as he would always slip out of his grasp.

"Okay guys." Luca was the one to call their attention. "I'm just going to ask this once. No swearing while in front of the Phione, you got it? If you do it, when we get back home you'll have to put one poké into a jar…" She said to them all. "Also this rule will be extended to after we take the pup back." She added, she needed someway to make them hold back swearing and just the swear jar alone while they had the Phione around would be a little thing, so maybe threatening with prolonging the rule if they started to swear would be enough encouragement.

As she said this, someone came back into the cave. She was angry and soaking wet. Luna came in and looked around searching for Natalie, wanting to give her a piece of her mind about her push. Dark seeing this almost growled at her. The former Vulpix resigning to bite her tongue for once. As she went inside, the Phione caught a glance of the scary looking Eevee, but it actually found her looks to be really funny, and it began giggling cutely. Normally this would have pissed off her to the point of burning the ass of the one laughing but, for some reason, she just found that giggling too cute. She looked at the little pup and actually it made her smile and look at herself, and a little mischievous idea came to her mind. She stood on all fours in the middle of the cave and without waiting she started shaking herself dry. Water jumping everywhere to drench them all if possible. Again Dark shielding Nat from this while all the others covered themselves while calling her name, some giggles sounding as well. When she was done though, her fur fluffed up, but for her it will be worth if she managed to get a few of them wet.

After this small event, the entire group started moving again, although this time, Zed was the one leading the group, following the Phione. "Supposedly, Phiones live in the Temple of the Seas, right? If that's the case, then this little guy should lead us straight there!" He deduced, looking at Phione, hopeful. It returned him a happy excited 'Phio!' and jumped away, bounding over to the beach and began jumping between the sand and the sea.

"Seems like someone's excited… but Zed could be onto something! Come on people!" Lucy announced as she and the rest of the group began walking across the beach, letting the Phione lead the way.

They had decided to move. Natalie was still out of it so Dark had to pick her up again and carry her. Not that he minded at all, it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be to keep her balanced over him and then followed the rest of the group. Shade stood close to him as well as Luca and Radius, just in case but so far he kept her on him without much trouble. Dust, before they decided to go, was about to get out and go exploring around but was beat to even stand and right now was debating wether to try and talk to Nox or leave it for another moment. Hadrim kept looking back at the Korel siblings every now and then, just in case. Luna was calm again, she even had a laugh explaining that she ended taking a salty bath because of Nat's push.

Eric and Elly kept an eye on their surroundings, watching if there was anything of importance going on around them, whilst Serge and Nox talk with eachother quietly, holding back laughter whilst looking at Luna and Hadrim, probably laughing at what had happened a few minutes ago, and finally Jake kept looking backwards, unsure if there was something or someone lurking in the shadows, yet not feeling as if he should tell the team anything since he didn't have any conclusive evidence. It was just a 'feeling' as they called it.

And sure enough, a few feet away from them, a shadowy figure was looking at them hiding between the trees, it's red eyes fixed on them as it kept following them, trying to keep out of sight.

After some minutes of walking along the shore, they reached a beach. Dust had to check his pokenav to be able to situate them, informing that they were at the southmost part of the island. The afternoon was starting to change into twilight. They got a late start due to not being able to leave port until midday and that took away the possibility of being back with the Captain that day, and they were still to find the temple… or so they thought as they could see something in the middle of the beach, a stone bridge linked it to some ancient looking ruins and the Phione gave an excited cry to then head straight for the ruins. The Kaiser looked at it and Dust decided to head on, more curious than anything and, following the pup, he went into the ruins. The others did the same shortly after with Dark being the more hesitant, the members of Team Star entering the vestige with careful steps.

What they saw as they went in was a long hallway of surprisingly well conserved walls and columns, even if the ceiling was cracked and some boulders had fallen on the floor. Dust stopped at one of the walls between two columns as the others went on. There were writings and paintings on those walls. The writing he wasn't able to recognize, as it looked as if the words were some kind of runes or something like that. The drawings on other side where more clear. The one he was looking at depicted humans and pokémon together in what looked like to be a big room, pokémon and human scattered around together. But there was something more than that. There was a band consisting of a few humans and pokémon, but there was something more. Some of the musicians had this… strange appearance. It mixed human's and animal's characteristics like bipedal bodies and human hands together with animal muzzles, fur, scales, tails, claws, digitigrade paws for feet and really big wings. There were some of this strange creatures drawn all over the picture, mixing with the crowd as one more kind. From the three kinds, some were dancing, with their same species or one from the other two, others were enjoying a meal and others were standing guard.

Dust was mesmerized by this painting… more so by the strange creatures he was seeing on it. "These are some… strange creatures, don't you think?" He asked looking around, finding himself alone gawking at the drawing. Elly and Jake had been looking at the writings up to that point, and just then began inspecting the drawings.

"It seems as if humans and pokémon have coexisted in this world for a long time… But those beings in the middle do not appear to be either… Is it plausible that there may have been another race living in this world in the far away past?" Jake theorized, but his words didn't really resonate with Elly.

"Maybe they are humans dressed up as pokémon in an attempt to communicate with them… maybe an ancient celebration. You guys did mention that there's some sort of international festivity where people dress up as monsters." The Sneasel tried to remember the name of said festivity, but it wouldn't come to her mind, and eventually gave up.

"I think I have seen some of this drawings on a book." Dust said. "Or was it on one of those TV shows about history of the world?" He pondered, still looking at that. "And the writings… I've explored a few ruins of the archipelago but they mostly had Unown writings not this… runic thing." He mentioned.

"You three, are you coming?" Luna called for them, as the others had turned to follow another hallway following the Phione. Their exploration would have to wait it seemed. Dust quickly went to her side and then with the others.

They kept getting deeper into those ruins until they reached a room that reached high above. The walls and columns were cracked and the ceiling had a big hole from the which twilight light came in. The floor had an… interesting design. It had a lot of circles distributed in what seemed to be three ringed levels with only a separation of a few steps of stairways. There was a circle at the center but whatever was inside was covered by the boulders of the ceiling. In the middle ring, there were others with a symbol in them. In one circle was a cross but it had two sides joined as if resembling an hourglass. Another had multiple spiral lines going from the line to the center, as if it was some kind of portal; and then there was a last circle inside the which was represented a blazing sphere. And then there were eighteen other circles in the external ring, each one with the symbol of each of the pokémon types inside.

Before anyone could notice the decoration of the floor however, a voice called their attention. "There you are!" The shout came from the bottom of the stairs. "You're in so much trouble now!" The voice was now even closer, and everyone braced themselves for what was about to come out, fearing the absolute worst. But what came out… was a large surprise for them all.

* * *

 **Ray: well I'll be damned… You actually made a no info cliffhanger!**

 **Eric: Now cue all the reviewers that will actually be after my head for doing the thing that everyone wanted me to do but that everyone hates… No seriously, just watch and flipping wait. Grab a bucket of popcorn while you're at it too. Also, tell your characters that this whole mess is getting solved soon… probably. Likely. Slight chance.**

 **Ray: Let's be honest we are not sure, and I'd love to keep my head over my shoulders, thank you. Well a little second Disclaimer here on my behalf guys: the three shanties wrote at the first part of this chapter come from Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag, credit to Ubisoft's Soundtrack Team. I just felt they fit there a lot. The titles are, respectively: 'Maid of Amsterdam', 'Fish in the Sea' and 'Drunken Sailor'. You can go and look them for the full things since I only put the first verses as to avoid making that part longer than it should. Well that's all on my behalf. We hope you enjoyed this chapter and hope to see you lot on the next one. byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**

 **Eric: Have a wonderful time people. Take care of yourselves.**

 **Ray's PS: Just one more thing… don't be too rough on Eric here, ok? *Even then, takes out a paper and a pen to note the names of the reviewers that are going to kill Eric***


	10. Chapter 9 - Dante's Mist

**Eric566: Alright, so… right off the bat, I want to apologize for being dead for like… three weeks or more. We haven't uploaded in longer, but I refer to the fact that I haven't been able to answer any PMs or anything of the sort, mainly because life's been a Nymphe, mainly because my phone died twice and I had to get it repaired, but mostly because I forgot to answer the messages after I read them… whoops.**

 **Eric566: Well, anyways, just something before we answer reviews: We're only going to be answering reviews from the English version here. However, if you wish us to post the responses to the reviews on the Spanish version as well, feel free to tell. Now without any further ado, let's answer the first review: Westernfail! Boy, am I glad to see you enjoyed those sea shanties, and am I even happier to see you around, my friend. I have noticed Alger's sudden absence though, is something the matter? And yes, Serge is a very interesting character, and there's going to be a lot of him from this point on… albeit you can say that about everyone in the group. And about the cultist… Well, maybe, maybe not, who knows, ask Ray for that.**

 **Ray: that would be spoilers.**

 **Eric566: And who the heck John Wick, and why do you want their number?**

 **Ray: Ok, now we go with AvaragePichu. Uh… bro this review left both of us confused as heck to be honest, but well, answering it. Those lovely moments where too good to break, and besides there was only one that approached an actual kiss, and that was the only one we stopped, for obvious reasons, such as… different bodies to their own.**

 **Eric566: And there's Hjof… look, I told you already: When Web of Lies comes around, you're all going to despise me for the cliffhangers there.**

 **Ray: you sure you should have told that title?**

 **And… that's it. Once again, I cannot express with words my gratitude for giving us all of this support so far, it helps a lot. Anyways, enough lollygagging: We give you the next chapter! Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

 **Dante's Mist**

Everyone's eyes go wide open as they find themselves staring at an irate Manaphy, who was staring straight at the little Phione they had been escorting home, who was slowly walking over to her, looking sad and ashamed. Everyone in the group was looking at the scene, unsure of what they were supposed to do at a time like this. "How many times have I told you not to wander outside of the temple alone, little sir?!" Hearing this, at least Luca and Hadrim knew better than to step in or say anything, mostly out of experience. "There are a lot of dangers out there and you can't even talk properly yet! Now go to your siblings and wait there. I have to tell your father that you are back before he decides to blow the island with a Hurricane." The little pup did as told, bouncing to the center of the room even knowing he was in for a rather long scolding while Manaphy concentrated for a moment, then sighed… and it was then that she noticed she had visitors. "Oh! Guests? That's new." She said looking at the group, surprised at first but then changing to a more welcoming behaviour and offered them a smile. "Welcome to my humble home, travelers. My name is Kaylani Manaphy. What brings you to this place?" She asked gently, landing in front of the group.

Now that they were being called to a conversation, Luca was the first to greet and introduced her family, letting Elly introduce Team Star, and explain that they do have a problem that only they can solve, allowing Luca to explain the situation in full detail. "You see. We are here because we had… a little issue regarding… changing bodies." The Pidgeot explained, not being able to avoid blushing and pointed that she was supposed to be the Lucario of the group. Hadrim stepped forward, since he was one of the implied into making this mess take place, and explained the story, having trouble to keep looking at the Legendary on the face.

"So… You need my help to go back to your bodies. Am I correct?" Kaylani asked calmly looking at them all and receiving nods from around everyone and she fidgeted in place a bit. "Well… You see… It's been a long time since I was able to do that." She said and then looked towards the floor in shame. "I don't think I can do it anymore… I'm sorry." She finished, leaving most of them in silence for a moment. Everyone stares at her in utter shock, jaws dropping as the bad news reached all of the group's components ears. However, one of them didn't react immediately, and instead, Jake remained perfectly still, as if he was frozen in time. That was, however, until his left eye began twitching, unsure on how to react, but clearly angry with all of this.

However, Eric noticed his companion's anger and waved at him, ordering the Sneasel in Eevee skin to calm down, a command that the ice type followed… albeit reluctantly, something which had never happened before. Eric sighs and looks at Kaylani. "Miss Kaylani, we… We've travelled a lot, and we got into this predicament a few days ago, and have been looking for ways to fix this problem. We read about you in a book, and we thought that you might be able to help us… If that's not the case, then may you please tell us of another way to fix this problem?" Eric asks politely, a little disappointed that the entire trip had been for naught.

"Well. The same thing that triggered this could solve it. Also asking the help of a psychic that can endure the swapping. Aaaaaaand I just love the faces those who came here with this sort of problem put to my little joke." She said, the last part she had to hold back a few giggles and a laughing fit out of respect. "Ah good old Derek never wrote that down it seems." She commented. "Jokes aside, you did came all the way here and I'm proud to say that it was not in vain. Just wanted to have a bit of fun with your faces. It's been long since the last time we had guests. Lil' Leo will be with us in a few minutes. What if we get to work. Just tell me your body one by one and I'll fix this. It's the least I can do since you brought my kit back safely." She said, keeping her welcoming smile. While Luna was fuming for her joke but didn't say a thing out of respect for the Legendary.

Nox, however, wasn't that self restrained, and everyone looked at him as he blew up, Elly standing besides him. "Wait, so you just said that in order to mess with us?!" He asked, growling in anger, the Manaphy nodding with a smile on her face, albeit the Houndour didn't share her cheerfulness. " **You bi-eeeeeeaaaaaaautiful, beautiful pokémon you!** " He shouted this at the top of his lungs, albeit he corrected himself halfway through his insult, courtesy of Elly's foot stomping down on his own, biting his tongue to hold back the pain. Serge sighs and rubs his forehead

"Don't say such things, boy… Otherwise lil' Leo will get jealous." She said the first part sternly but then returned to her cheery tone of voice by the second. "Well who goes first?" She asked, her antennae glowing as it split in two and she lowered them for them to touch them. The first one to step forwards was Dust, wanting to get back not only his body but control about what he could or couldn't say without fear of someone getting his everstone away from him. He looked at Lucy with a serious look, asking her to step forwards just with it, waiting for her before touching the antennae with a paw. Lucy rolled her eyes and stepped forward… considering faking to grab the stone and take it off just to spite him, but alas decided to not do so and touched Kaylani's antenna as well. In an instant a red aura surrounded their bodies as a light came from them, crossed the Manaphy and entered the other, only then the glow disappeared and she made them let go of her. Dust almost fell on his butt at the sudden change of balance, looking at his paws and all over himself to then give a jump shouting joyfully.

"Hell, yeah! I'm back!" He said, giving some punches, jumps and kicks, getting again a feel for his body. "Ah this feels **so fucking** good." He ended, and Luca smirked. Lucy was now back into her body, and as soon as she could move, she ran as fast her legs could allow her without any acceleration, being back with her team in the blink of an eye, then back to where Dust was, and then away, giggling and then laughing as she cheered and ran around, celebrating that she was finally back in her body. Natalie woke up after the first swap, Dark looking at her and smiling, happy to see her fine. She got off of him, her head no longer ached and she felt great, if just a bit tired still.

The members of Team Star looked at Jake, expecting him to be next… but were honestly surprised when he didn't say or do anything. Zed was the one to ask what was wrong. "Hey… Jake, why don't you go next? You really wanted to have your body back, didn't you?" The Zorua asks, the Sneasel turning to look at him.

"I have been waiting for three days… and now that the moment is nigh, I believe that I can wait just a few more minutes to regain the control of my body… so if nobody minds, I shall go last." He declares, sitting on the back to await his turn, his decision surprising everyone. He had been thinking of doing this since the night before, hence why he had been so quiet and secretive… but now the cat was out of the bag, and they could all feel as if the Sneasel had slightly changed. Shade on her part was eager at first because she didn't want him to keep harassing her but hearing him she just now waited patiently for Elly or Radius to make her move too.

One by one, all the members of the Kaiser household and Team Star regained the controls of their bodies, Serge flying around a bit, Zed reuniting with Lucy as they both hopped up and down and cheered, Nox looking between his legs to find that everything was indeed in order, and finally Jake inspected his body and was pleased to find it was in perfect condition. As such, Elly was one of the last few to regain control of her body, and as soon as she did… Eric swooped right in, picking her up in his arms and spinning around as he pulled her in for a passionate kiss, which she gladly returned. The Kaiser also cheered their own way. Dark looked at his paws and flexed the digits, even stretched, back to two legs. Natalie shook herself, again the smallest Eevee of the group, bodywise. Hadrim lifted a few boulders and made them orbit around him as if he was a planet the rocks its Moons to then let them down when Luca picked him up with a "Com'ere you fiery know it all." And as the other couple there shared quite the kiss with the Espeon. Radius and Shade looked at themselves and tried their moves, Rad dashed with a quick attack as Shade used a wish on herself, the soothing feeling of the healing move being so familiar and welcome, even if it did nothing at the moment, while Rad did some laps around Lucy and Zed as if trying to boast a bit of speed himself, and he was somewhat faster than the average Eevee. Luna used her fire to her heart's content, even daring to burn a patch of rock and lay down on it, purring at the feeling of the hot floor against her belly.

Everyone but Jake from Team Star gagged. "C'mon guys! Get a room for that sort of stuff!" Serge exclaimed, triggering everyone's laughter. A few seconds after that comment Eric and Elly pulled away from eachother, smiling, then turned to look at them.

"Oh come on, just let us enjoy this for once!" Elly says, laughing as well, whilst Eric just crosses his arms and smirks.

"Y'know, we're behind on training… and that comment of yours just reminded me of that fact!" He announced, making everyone look at Serge is dismay, blaming him for that, the Pidgeot rubbing the back of his head, internally cursing the Riolu, before everyone broke into laughter, and as always, Jake just stood by their side… albeit this time he did crack a small smile upon seeing his companions laughing. Nox noticed this and pointed it out to the rest.

"Oh my god, Jake just smiled!" He shouted, the Sneasel's face quickly regressing to it's normal deadpan state, albeit he looked away.

"Absurd… you must be seeing things." He responded, triggering everyone's laughter again. Even the Kaiser shared some laughs with them for this while Luca refused to let go of her mate, not that he minded at all to be on her arms.

By the time they realized it, the process had taken them the entire afternoon, and night had already fallen on the island. However, that wasn't the only detail that they had somehow skimmed over with the whole "returning to their bodies" thing… As all of a sudden the sound of a pair of massive wings deafened all sixteen of them, and through the entrance hall came a large white and blue figure, drops of water sprinkling as it flew past above them and turns around, landing besides Kaylani. The figure is none other than a Lugia, and by process of elimination, it can only be one… albeit the Manaphy is the most excited to see him there, jumping up and wrapping her arms around his neck with such a big smile that she was kinda reminiscent to her offspring… " _Like mother like children_ ", Elly supposed, feeling an asphyxiating weight in her chest, one that she dissimulated with relative ease. It wasn't good enough for her own mate though, who saw her visible tense up upon seeing this scene, knowing exactly where her mind was going to.

"Welcome back, lil' Leo." Kaylani said hugging him with all she had, gesture he returned with a smile and some gentle nuzzles.

"Glad to be back. And I got us some dinner on the way." He said, lowering his tail where he had a big fish trapped, letting it down, being a big and fat tuna, already dead.

"Well… this scene seems certainly adorable, that I must admit…" Jake said, once again catching everyone off-guard, but his face was serious. "But you must have all taken notice that night has fallen on this land… this marks the second night from the moment we left the Kaiser Household. Let us hope that we find it there when we come back." He simply stated, returning everyone to the real world with what felt like a bucket of ice cold water. Nox, however, was none too pleased, and called the Sneasel a killjoy… yet deep inside they knew he was right.

"You should learn when to pop someone's bubbles, Icy heart." Luna said to the Senasel, shooting him a glare that she thought he will surely dismiss, like always, yet kept it. A few worried faces and a groan where the mates of her words as a response to the Sneasel. He looked away, bothered by these responses… he had just stated the truth.

"Way to go. You sure know how to keep spirits up…" Dust followed. Certainly, the Sneasel's words just made the Kaiser Pokémon want to return home as soon as eatherly possible. The Team Star members also wished to go back to the household to check if they were all ok, and albeit Jake's words weren't exactly comforting…

"He's right in a sense. We can't stop and dilly dally for too long, we have to go back." Elly announced, earning herself groans and shouts of disapproval.

"What?! Come on, we just got our bodies back! Can't we relax for a bit?!" Lucy shouted, whilst Zed simply nodded, fully supportive of his mate's words. He did agree with her on that one.

"Yeah, well, I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted… 'sides, wouldn't hurt to stay here one night and refresh ourselves, it's dark out right now, y'know?" Serge says, assuming his usual lazy position, laying on his side.

Seeing the mood, Dark decided to try and at least cheer the Kaiser family up. "Hey. Even if we take a week to go back. The family has helped the forest a lot. I'm sure that all the Pokémon you've helped when they needed it will step in the line for them." He said to them, getting their attention. Truly, he had trusted those words himself and hoped it could serve to lighten the mood a little bit after the crushing ice wall **someone** decided to pull on them all. "I bet my mane to it." He added, which only earned him some funny faces.

"However, I suggest we sleep at the beach tonight. As Jake and Serge have said: it's night time now and most of us have trouble with actually not seeing a single thing at this time of the day." Natalie added, knowing that, even if all pokémon had some degree of night vision, being normally night dwellers Dark-types had a better sight during the night, or at least, most of the Dark-type species do, if she remembered well that biology book she read once to help herself go to sleep.

"Oooh, we're sleeping on the sand?" The Pidgeot asked, clearly interested as he rises from his spot. "Why… this reminds me of that one time I seduced a pretty…" He was about to start rambling again, whilst Lucy covered her ears and started singing 'Nobody caaaares! Nobody careeeees!' over and over.

"Serge! There are kits in this room! Behave!" Luca jumped in, glaring at him now. Eventually these two displeased females are enough to get the Pidgeot to shut up, albeit he ends up flipping them a wing… once again, nobody understanding what the gesture was supposed to mean, although what eventually ceased his shenanigans were the "kill-you-dead" looks that both Leopold and Kaylani gave him, encouraging him to not go down that way.

"Ugh… Sand… it's gonna get in my fur…" Elly wasn't exactly excited, and Eric pet her on the head, managing to brighten her mood, albeit he wasn't looking forward to it either… the sand did get everywhere after all.

"Well… We could try and find a spot in the forest." Hadrim suggested, but before anyone could answer.

"Or you could stay here tonight." It was Kaylani who offered. "Nights are still cold to be sleeping outside of home or a den. And is another way to say 'thank you for taking back my child'." She added. Leopold looked at them, his eyes falling on Dark and Natalie for a moment, before he nodded.

"I agree with my mate. You are welcome to spend the night here with us, and depart at dawn." He said calmly and collected, also giving them an inviting smile.

The non-legendary Pokémon looked at each other, as if debating what they as a group wanted to do. One by one they voted and in the end decided to stay the night, which triggered cheers from basically everyone, Serge mockingly coughed and started a fake story about meeting a female adventurer in some ruins… he didn't get to finish that sentence, however, as a Sneasel, a few Eevee and a Shinx all showed him their fangs, while Eric and other males plus Luca simply cracked their knuckles, the sound echoing in the temple, silencing the flying type immediately.

As they would be staying, Leo and Kay decided to share their dinner too. What surprised the hosts was that in between an Espeon and a Lucario managed to perfectly cook an entire tuna of slightly more than a thousand pounds for everyone and using only their own fire. Sadly, this time Team Star would have to chose having dinner or scavenge for fruits outside if they didn't want to pass the night without eating, since their hosts had ran out of berry and fruit supplies, hence why Leopold had fished such a meal. However, before they could even think on any other alternative, the Lugia approached them.

"You're not hungry?" He asked them, worried seeing them away while Hadrim and Luca cooked the tuna behind him.

"We… uh… We don't eat any type of meat… all eight of us are vegetarians, so… we won't be able to eat any of this." Eric explained for the whole group, most of them looking away from the fish that they were starting to cook.

"Oh. I see. I am sorry for not being able to offer you anything more akin to your preferences." He apologized and looked at the cooking fish for a moment. "Look, since they seem to be taking their time, I'll go out and scavenge you some fruits. Will that suffice?" He offered.

Elly was the one to speak up now, looking surprised. "No no no! There's no need for that, Leopold! We… we don't want to cause any problems…" She begins, but she already knows that Leopold won't be so easily convinced. And besides, they were all hungry, and the provisions for the trip would probably not suffice.

"It is no problem. What kind of host would I be if I was to leave my guests without proper dinner?" And with that, he went to Kaylani, told her what he was about to do and then flew out of the place through the ceiling's hole. Eric and Elly looked at him as he left, not really sure of what the Lugia would bring them, whilst everyone but Jake were starting to daydream about what type of delicacies the Lugia might bring them.

Some minutes after, Leo came back through the same hole, though his eyes were glowing as he landed. After him big pile of berries and fruits came in through the same place. He had used this to also restock their own reserves, separated a chunk of the pile to offer it to Team Star, leaving a mountain of fruits and berries in front of them as the rest went under the floor as he lifted a stone from it to discover a hole and then let it down to cover the entrance. "Will this be enough?" He asked them gently. He had scavenged a lot of different kinds of fruits. From Oran berries to Leppa, and about fruits he had brought, apples, pears, bananas, there was even a big watermelon for all eight of them to share… and that made the other group's mouths become waterfalls of droll for just a moment.

Everyone looked on, ecstatic to see that amazing feast. They thanked Leopold repeatedly, then waited for the others to begin before they dug in. All the berries vanished within the first few minutes, devoured by the famished pokémon, and then moved on to feast on the outrageously large watermelon, deciding to share with their meat-eating friends out of the kindness of their hearts, and this fruit also vanished within a few seconds, leaving most stuffed. However, some, like Elly, decided to try absolutely everything, and she picked a banana from the bunch, slowly peeling it as Eric looked at her.

"Good grief Elly, you're still hungry?" He asked, but she didn't actually answer with words. Instead, however, she answered with the widest smile she could ever muster, and began peeling the banana agonizingly slowly, the Riolu rolling his eyes and looking at the food pile… and yet, he looked only once at Elly… only to see her licking the tip of the uncovered banana in a really strange manner. His brain picked up on it really quickly, and his face grew more and more flushed by the minute as she wrapped her lips around it and began taking the fruit slowly, floating in front of her thanks to her psychic abilities, only half peeled, until her lips bumped against the peel, then slowly drew back and took a bite off of the fruit, winking at Eric with those huge sky blue eyes of hers and a devious smile.

"Hey Eric… you alright? You look like you're coming down with a fever." Zed pointed out, unaware of what had just happened, even though Lucy was giggling madly, and both Serge and Nox's mouths were open agape. The Riolu's face legitimately looked like the surface of a cheri berry, and merely sat still with his eyes open and his legs crossed for a few good minutes, his eyes watching Elly's every move, cursing her mentally.

This little moment went completely unnoticed by the Kaiser group, who were stuffing themselves in their chunks of warm, tender, cooked fish until they were satisfied, letting out some hufs and so on as they finished. Dust even used a spine as a toothpick. "So, Dust… you know thanks to you now we have the rules of the swear jar on us, right?" Luca asked her son, leaving him looking at her confused, not getting why she was saying that, whilst she giggled slightly, leaving the topic there. Laying down and putting her head on her mate's back.

"Comfy?" He asked, smirking at her.

"Pretty much, thank you." She answered as he chuckled, curling to give her a lick on the nose and accommodate himself too, ready to sleep with a warm, full belly. Yet he took advantage to tease her a bit with his tail as she tried to go to sleep, making her slap her own face once, which earned more chuckling from him and a pinch from her to him. Luna was looking around, Shade and Radius lay down together to share warmth themselves, Dark and Natalie were doing the same and Dust was looking at Emily with a dreamy smile. She smiled back and nuzzled him a bit before laying besides him. Eric and Elly both went to sleep like they always did: embracing eachother protectively, albeit this time they managed to hold a conversation with their telepathy, now that she finally had her powers back. Zed and Lucy curled up around one another and got comfy, Jake sat down against a pillar and napped off, whilst Serge laid on his back and sprawled on the floor, falling asleep almost instantly, leaving Nox to stand guard for the first shift of the night.

The Vulpix felt slightly… alone. The other nights she could just go to Ichiro and curl on his lap or by his side. This time… she had to lay down alone, and for some reason it only made it feel even colder for her. Dark, Natalie, Shade and Rad were already on their trip towards dreamland, surprising how the Zoroark managed to sleep without a problem without his medicine. " _He surely must be as calm as a summer breeze._ " She thought seeing him laying down, with Natalie using his mane as a blanket, and then seeing Shade and Radius curled together. She laid down by herself, heating up her body and the rocks beneath her to keep herself warm, closing her eyes for her own trip. Dust at the moment, only had eyes for Em, however, a strange feeling, contrary to all the happiness he have been feeling since the whole swap thing was fixed, made him look around until his eyes fell on Luna. It was her aura, it had a slight tint of… " _Is she… sad? Lonely?_ " He thought as he kept reading her aura, even through open eyes and lowered his ears when he looked around, seeing his family all sharing the night.

The Riolu could put himself in her fur in this situation. The first days he had been gone it was the same for him, missing the warmth of others when it was time to sleep. Carefully he approached her, but when he was within arm's reach, her eyes shot open and looked at him, making him flinch slightly. "Uh… Hey… Are you alright?" He asked.

"Yes. I am. Why?" She asked him, her tone dry and firm.

He thought for a moment, nervous and trying to chose his words correctly. "Uh… Well… just checking… I just… felt that you were sad and… I'm just trying to…" But she interrupted his stuttering.

"Look, Dust. I'm fine. Now why don't you go bother your little fluffy hearty and leave me be?" She said to him and went away towards a corner of the room. The Riolu stood there, looking at her and then sighed. Luna just laid down on her new spot and again heated the floor for warmth and curled to sleep. In the end, he went to her again. "What do you want now?" She asked seeing him again.

"Well… I just want to be a friend with you. Admit it, Luna, you want company." He told her and she stood in silence, not wanting to talk nor finding the words nor the will to tell him off again. "Come on. Let's go with the others." He said to her, but she didn't move for almost a minute.

In the end, she did that, trying to seem reluctant but her aura gave her away and made him smile a bit more. Once there, she looked at the others again and again that feeling Dust picked from her was back and he put a paw on her back. "Hey. Calm down. Shade and Rad will make space for you if you were to ask, and mom and dad would surely let you curl with them too." He said smiling warmly, but didn't dare talk about Dark and Natalie since he didn't know them to this point, yet. In the end, the Vulpix approached the sleeping Eevee and woke Shade up gently, the female let her curl with them, poor Rad woke up too but he didn't mind and went back to sleep in a moment. Dust smirked at the smile Luna had when she fell asleep too. "Way to go, Dusty. You've earned a pat on the shoulder." He whispered for himself, patting himself as he sat back with Emily and laid down with her, the Eevee giggling and nuzzling Dust, a small reward for being so considerate. He nuzzled her back chuckling and then hugged her as he got comfy with her, ready to sleep.

* * *

The night went on. It was late night, a few hours away from dawn when a mist started to rise in the room. growing more and more dense as the time went by. After some minutes, the entire room was covered in a thick fog that obstructed the view at barely two feet in front of anyone. Jake, who was standing guard at the time, didn't make much of it, as when he was standing guard it wasn't as serious, and eventually relegated his role to Lucy, the third and final guard of the night, and it was her who noticed that the fog was getting extremely thick, moving over to where Serge was snoring away to try and fix this situation.

Unbeknownst to her, however, there was someone that moved within the mist, not making a sound and moving as if it could see through it without a problem. The being approached the sleeping Korel siblings. Meanwhile, Lucy poked Serge's face with her paw, trying to wake him up, and she persisted even after she was unsuccessful the first few times, until Serge took in a sharp breath and opened his eyes, blinking repeatedly and sitting up. "Wha… what the fuc… What's going on, sun's coming up already?" He asked, confused.

"Not even close. Look around." She told him, and the Pidgeot did just that, not really paying attention to the mist… until he actually paid attention to his surroundings and realized he couldn't even see the end of his beak. But they couldn't see the scene involving Dark, Natalie and the mysterious creature.

Once by their side, it crouched down, holding a long recurved dagger in one hand and getting ready to strike. It rose the weapon and was ready to sink it down the Zoroark's chest as it got ready to hold his muzzle shut. Maybe the hit will pierce his heart but he'll still life enough to let out as cream if it didn't silence him… The being thought if it would be better to slice his throat instead, and then decapitate the Eevee by his side.

"Woah… this is some dense fog." He stood up, flapping his wings. "I'm guessing you want me to clear it up?" He asked, the Shinx nodding, the Pidgeot considering to just say "Nah" and lay down again… but with Lucy, that was bound to not end well, and decided to clear it up for her. And as they did… they lifted that being's cover, those last thoughts as to how bring swift death to its targets spelling out his doom. " **Shit! We've got company!** " Serge shouted as he could as Lucy dashed forward, aiming to stop that knife before it went anywhere, his shout effectively waking up Eric and Elly immediately, who prepared two aura spheres and a psychic blade respectively and looked at the threat.

If not for Lucy's action, Dark would have sit up to a knife through his chest, as the Zoroark sat right up, the blade giving him a cut in an arm as the human about to attack him changed targets and swung its blade to slash at the incoming Shinx out of reflection, since she came really fast towards it. The whole Kaiser group was awakened by the scream and seeing the attacker, Luca, Radius and Dust ran at it while Hadrim concentrated, the first thought being cutting any escape routes so he formed a barrier on the exit, trapping them and the human, inside the room.

Lucy tried to avoid the dagger, but was unable to do so, the knife leaving a nasty cut on her side, which wasn't deep, but she still yelped in pain, the creature's arm smashing against her side and throwing her away. This attack made Zed look up, his eyes widening in pure shock and terror. " **Lucy!** " He screeched out, scrambling to his paws and racing towards Lucy. Eric and Elly looked at the Shinx momentarily, the sight fueling their rage and rushing against the human as well, preparing to attack.

Hearing Zed, Shade looked at the Shinx and ran towards her too. Whilst Dark took advantage of the moment to hold the human's arm and gave him quite a hard punch on the face, making the human step back and away from him. The Zoroark was wide awake and also furious by what had just happened. The human had no time to think as he, since it was a man, was suddenly blocking and parrying the attacks from a Lucario and a Riolu, together with dodging a male Eevee that tackled at him in every opening he got.

Eric rushed in and slammed an aura sphere into where he had been standing, the human jumping away right before Eric fell there, the Riolu throwing the other sphere after him, yet the human was nimble, leaning to the side and dodging it, the sphere hitting a pillar and blowing it to bits, Elly throwing slashes with her blades and following up those two attacks from Eric, the human blocking some strikes with his dagger and dodging others, backing away as Eric comes in and sweeps the ground with his feet, the human simply jumping backwards and backflipping, displaying grace in his movements.

Leopold and Kaylani had other priorities. Hadrim looked at the entrance as he felt his barrier shake, being the Lugia lowering it to allow them to evacuate their offspring. The Espeon dispelled his barrier and concentrated on the human, watching his movements. He moved with elegance, as if dancing in the air, and could block an attack like a bullet punch from Luca and doge swiftly enough the others. It clicked in his mind but before he could warn them, the human was surrounded in a water sphere that broke into a huge wave that aimed to push everyone away from it. When the water was gone, instead of a human they found a four legged Pokémon with a wavering purple mane, two wavering ribbon like tails, blue and white fur with diamond patterns. They were fighting Suicune, who didn't waste time, launching an ice beam to try and freeze Lucy where she stood. Shade too distracted concentrated in her own move to notice.

"Shade! Watch out!" Dust called at his sister, who looked at them just in time to see the attack halfway towards them. Nox rushed in at the last second and breathed intense flames at the ice beam, defending the two females whilst Jake hurled two icicles at the Suicune, interrupting the Ice beam, a stream of flames bathing the immediate area around the legendary, forcing everyone to run away. Thankfully, Serge swooped down to grab and carry away Eric and Elly.

"Dante?! Everyone! Out!" Leopold called to them all when his family was already running through the hallway. The Suicune let loose another huge wave as it had used the move to protect itself from the Houndour's fire, aiming at putting an end to it giving him a cold bath. After this, the legendary jumped over them landing in front of Dark and Natalie, who were trying to make a run for it and swung his paw, The Zoroark pushed the Eevee back in time but was too slow for himself, getting three cuts across the belly, luckily he was fast enough for them not to be dangerously deep. The Zoroark let out a yelp of pain but retaliated with a quick Aura sphere of his own, surprising the Suicune and actually nailing the hit on his chest, making the legend step back in pain for the direct hit. Ignoring his wound, Dark went back to running, Natalie going by his side. Before Dante could follow them, Eric rushed in and slammed his fist against his muzzle, making him back away, and then turned around and launched a flurry of kicks, his leg glowing intensely before kicking one final time, unleashing the aura in his limb and launching the Suicune away from the entrance, not taking any chances.

"Can you stand, Lucy?" Shade asked the Shinx. Being so close to the Suicune she won't be able to make her move on her quick enough, she still needed some time to actually use it, and to get time she needed to get Lucy out of the temple as soon as possible. She nodded, and slowly she began limping towards the entrance, giving her mate a reassuring look, but he wasn't convinced so easily, knowing she was still hurt. They had other matters to attend to, however, such as getting all of Kaylani's and Leopold's children out of the temple. The necklaces of Team Star's members shone as Elly established the psychic connection.

" _Alright, we need to split up! Serge, Zed and Lucy, get the Kaisers and the Phiones out of the temple ASAP. Elly, Jake and Nox, stick with me and let's give this bastard hell!"_ Eric shouted into all their minds, the Riolu's strong voice once again reinstating his leadership. They all felt it at the same time: a chill of excitement, a rush of adrenaline that renewed their spirits.

Team Star was back.

" _ **Roger!**_ " They all responded and did what they were told, Zed covering Lucy as she limped out of the temple, Shade by their side, whilst Serge swooped back and forth, picking Phiones and carrying them away quickly. Jake looked at the Suicune, and tried to remember all he had read about the legendary. " _Suicune is a master of using water and ice in conjuction, I recommend that the water be deflected through barriers and the ice melted with fire. His quadruped condition renders him vulnerable to various attacks from different angles, specially from above, with exercise caution when doing so, as he will use his water or ice to either push us back or damage us._ " Jake said this as he summoned icicles.

Dust, Luca and Radius kept their fight against Suicune. To him the attacks from this three didn't compare to the others, maybe the Shiny Riolu was the one that hit harder, but the real pain came from the group of clearly much more experienced Pokémon. He had to risk a closer approach. And for it he went. At first he attacked Luca, headbutting her to break her incoming Close combat, then he kicked Radius Tackle away, slamming the Eevee against a wall and then held Dust's bone rush with a Bite. Taking advantage of the closeness, Suicune launched a close range Ice beam, freezing the surprised Shiny Riolu in a block of ice.

Seeing this, Luca roared out in rage and went for him, a bone rush of her own enveloped in ice and morphing into a big warhammer. She brought it down on him, but the Suicune just jumped back to dodge her attack, the which left a hole on the floor.

"You bastard!" She roared and followed, getting berserk and just wanting to hit the Legendary with all her might for freezing her son. Not caring about anyone more in the room. Luna seeing this approached Dust and took breath, instantly breathing all the fire she could over the block of ice to melt it. Nox joined into the fight and melted the ice and evaporated the water, charging forward and trying to hit Suicune with his flaming body, but missed as Dante jumped to the side, and even as he tried to push away Nox with a blast of water, a psychic barrier rose and diverted it, helping Nox roast the legendary's legs whilst Jake jumped above said barrier and come down on Dante, brandishing his claws and an icicle, his claws attempting to slash his eyes out, but missed and instead his his muzzle.

Hadrim was looking at this. Normally the Legendaries never attacked other Pokémon like this, unless they are a huge threat. And this had his mind racing for reasons as to why would Dante attack them. "Dante Suicune! Why are you attacking us? We have done nothing to offend you!" The Espeon called as a Psybeam went towards the Legendary, who jumped to dodge the attack, smashing a summoned chunk of ice against Jake, yet he used his remaining projectile to stop the hit and jump away, putting some distance between the two.

"My reasons are not of your concern." The Suicune talked for the first time, summoning a new wave that crashed over everyone once more. Eric jumped over the wave, and Luca used her bone rush to do the same. Radius dug under it, coming out in time not to be drowned in his hole. Luna was the one with most trouble to get out of its way, her fire wasn't strong enough to evaporate a hole into it and she was far from the entrance, still trying to free the frozen Shiny Riolu. She had to cover too so she made a run towards Hadrim as the Espeon lifted a barrier around himself. She closed her eyes as she ran, just wanting to reach him. She managed, but she tripped on her paws and fell on her side by the Espeon. Right then the wave crashed over his protection, that he held up only getting a few cracks. Luna looked around, confused. She was prepared for the wave to hit her but she somehow had reached Hadrim before it did, and for some reason she knew she hadn't made it to his side just running.

However, she didn't have time to think about it, as the Espeon looked at her. "Go help the others." He said. She looked at him and then at Dust, and went to him as fast as her paws would carry her and again started to melt the ice block encasing the Riolu. Eric told Nox to help them free Dust, but the Houndour didn't listen, and instead throwing fire at an incoming ice beam and started struggling with the Suicune. Eric saw the opportunity and thought of going after their foe, but decided to go help Dust, as Elly and Jake were already all over him. Dante had noticed that his targets had ran away, yet he still had to fight off Elly and Jake, who attacked in coordination, the Eevee jumping and throwing a psychic wave at where he was standing, forcing him to move, before Jake dashed in, coating the floor in ice and slid towards Dante, slashing at him, most of his attacks being blocked by the Suicune's ice shell, then finally blasted away by a Hydro Pump, Elly having to stop her barrage to help Jake so that he wouldn't take too much of a fall, Dante had some scratches and bruises from fighting against the duo. After getting some space, he surrounded himself in water and rocketed towards the hole in the ceiling. Hadrim tried to form a barrier there but the Legendary was too fast for him and he couldn't put it up in time, so he dismissed it.

"Where's he going?" Luca asked, not getting why their foe was, seemingly, running away. Eric thawed out Dust with Luna's help, and ran after the Suicune, jumping onto a pillar and bouncing off of it to reach the hole, leaving some of the then astonished at his feat. He found the Suicune on top of the temple, charging a Hyper beam in order to try and snipe Dark and Natalie as they fled towards the woods, but right before he fired, Eric threw an aura sphere at his side, blowing him away, yet the beam missed Dark's chest by mere inches, blowing up the immediate area in front of them. For this attack the Zoroark changed directions, Natalie following close as they ran away, but got separated from the rest of the group. Eric rushed in at the staggered Suicune and threw a punch at his face, his fist meeting a thin coat of ice which blocked his attack and allowing Dante to jump backwards.

Eric did the same and got some space between the two, the irregular shape of the temple's roof making it hard to move. "Care to explain why you're here and trying to kill our friends?!" He asked, preparing two more aura spheres, and yet Dante didn't bother to respond with anything but a snare, jumping off the roof and heading after Dark and Natalie. He caught up to them insanely quickly, as they were stepping onto the grass, already getting ready to attack them, but a double hit from the siblings, Dark with an Aura sphere and Natalie with a Shadow ball, made the legend face to other side, albeit this attacks didn't made him move an inch from the spot he was. However, it gave them enough room to get some space between them and him.

"Fuck! What have we done to you!?" Dark asked, getting desperate more for not knowing why he was clearly targeting them, yet again, Dante kept silent. Suddenly, a thick fog rose on the area, blinding the siblings and allowing Dante to attack freely, landing a few hits on them and then blasting them towards the beach with a Hydro pump. Dark was the first of the two to rise to his feet, the Zoroark summoning a bone rush of his own. Even with more cuts and bruises, he wasn't going down without putting a fight if he could, even being massively overpowered.

Dante once again surrounded himself in a sphere of water, aiming to drown this two with a Surf and make their bodies sink into the seas. However, before he released the wave, a green Aura sphere collided with it and blasted off his move. Dust was at the entrance of the temple, his whole fur damp for being frozen. Without wasting more time, the Riolu dashed at the legendary, with Luca by his side, both ready to strike him up close. However, Dante summoned a Hydro pulse. The three aura users tried to block it with their bones but they only shattered into pieces as the attack hit them. Dust's lasting more than Luca's, and Dark's being the first to break and he was hit over his other wound, making the Zoroark kneel down. Immediately, Dante launched an Aurora Beam to get rid of the two fighting types, but once again, Eric intervened and tried to blow him up with an Aura sphere, throwing him off.

Eric jumped in between the Kaiser pokémon, putting himself in between them and Dante. "You better stop… unless you want to receive the biggest beating of your damn life!" Eric threatened, the legendary giving him an amused look.

"Weak pokémon such as you don't deserve any better! All of your friends have fallen, and if you think you have a chance at stopping me… you're a fool!" As he says this, Dante creates another Hydro Pulse and aims it directly at Eric. However, the Riolu summons a staff of light, comparable to the bone rush that the previous three had used, yet it didn't share the shape. He turned around and crossed the staff behind his back, and also unlike the other three, the staff resisted the blow, blocking the attack successfully, then the Riolu turned around and twirled the staff, breaking the stream of water. Dante was surprised at first, but then brought his two front legs forward and tried to smash Eric into the ground.

With precision and speed, the Riolu stepped to the right to avoid the attack, and then moved his whole body and spun his staff in his right paw, lifting up sand as the back end of his staff slid across the sand and smashed directly into Dante's lower jaw with a dry noise, similar to that of a baseball bat smashing against a wall, parrying his blow, and the Riolu kept the momentum from the first hit and swung his staff with both of his paws, hitting the side of Dante's muzzle and throwing him backwards, the Legendary sliding across the sand and onto the dirt once more, all of this happening in mere seconds.

Dust stood in place, looking at Dante while slightly panting, he was surprised, and so was Luca, Dark was trying to endure the pain on his belly still as he rose and Natalie was looking at Eric with her eyes wide open and mouth slightly agape. The pain of her wounds forgotten for the moment. Hadrim was silent, witnessing such strength for the first time. The Espeon tried to keep his cool even if he was impressed by this display. Shade on other paw had her eyes glued to the white staff the Riolu was holding and also at the bloody muzzle of the Legendary. Seeing Dark, Dust rose to his paws and went to them.

"Hey, you two okay?" He asked the Korel siblings.

"Mostly…" Was Dark's answer.

"I'm fine… somehow." Natalie said as Dust was by their side, turning to face Dante, who rose to his paws as a Water ring surrounded his body and went into it, healing some of his wounds. Yet when he rose he glared daggers at the regular Riolu, and spat blood to a side, a tooth appearing in the spit, some blood coming out of the corner of his muzzle as his fangs were covered in blood when he snarled at the fighting-type.

Eric turned to face Dark and Natalie. "Get out of here. Now." He simply stated, crossing his staff behind his back and looking at Dante, who the Riolu suspected had some choice words for him.

They did just that, Luca going with them. "You can handle or need a paw?" Dust asked the fellow Riolu.

"Nah… watch and learn, Dust… I'm about to show this bastard why I'm the co-leader of this team." He simply stated, keeping his eyes on Dante, who merely glared as his targets ran away.

"I would love nothing more that to see you do it but I think it's better that I stick close to those two." Dust chuckled for the other's attitude. "Just try not to lose an arm." And with that he turned and ran after the Korel and his mother.

Eric smirks and sees him off, before turning to face Dante again. "So! What was that about me being a weakling?! Because that broken tooth of yours would beg to differ!" He taunted the legendary, buying more time for the rest to run away.

"You… worthless… What kind of strength is that?! My power far exceeds that of any pitiful pokémon of your level, so how come you were able to withstand those two blows!?" He asked, Eric rolling his eyes, already getting a psychological profile on the legendary.

"And you think you're the best out of everyone and you think this doesn't make any sense… Look, I've heard all of them, Dante, and you're not going to surprise me whatsoever. You're done, end of the line, so go away and we'll make as if none of this ever happened." The Riolu said, even though he knew the Suicune wouldn't be convinced through those words alone.

And he was right, as Dante stook back up and chuckled. "You idiot… do you think you stand a chance against me? I am Dante Suicune, master of crystals, and you and your friends are nothing but **vermin** , standing in the way of a better world! Your dirty tricks won't surprise me anymore, Riolu!" He roared, getting ready to fight, much to Eric's disappointment, yet a cocky smile spread across his muzzle.

"Alright, if that's the case… it was nice knowing you." He said, to Dante's utter confusion, before another voice came from the side.

" **Curtain calls!** " Elly shouted as a black sphere shot forward, transforming into a Riolu's paw and clenching into a fist, smashing into Dante and sending him flying against the trees, wrecking the first few and stopping against the third, before grabbing Dante again and smashing him against the ground, then back to Eric to swing his staff at the Suicune again. Dante managed to react this time, summoning an ice wall to block the swing, landing on the ground, but was stomped by a large Eevee paw, which pinned him to the ground and immobilized him.

Shade and Hadrim where the remaining Kaiser pokémon in the battlefield. The Espeon was speechless at the way those two handled Dante as if the Legendary was nothing more than a training dummy. Shade kept there because Lucy had stopped, recovering her breath and smirking as Eric and Elly went to town on Dante, whilst the rest of the members from Team Star, plus Emily, Kaylani and Leopold appeared there to witness this very same scene. Emily's jaw almost touched the floor, and same with Kaylani and Leopold, who were utterly shocked to see what was happening. After recovering from this shock, the Shiny Eevee finally managed to concentrate enough to summon her move and put a wish over Lucy. A few seconds after, Lucy's body glowed slightly and her wound healed completely, leaving the Shinx as if she had never gotten hit.

She jumped up and cheered for that, thanking Shade before turning to look at Dante, who was trying to get out from under the paw, attempting to summon waves of water, but the paw would not budge, and any attempts to throw ice or attacks at the Eevee ended in failure. Eric walked over to Elly, who was focusing on keeping Dante still. "Nice… Didn't want to have to resort to this… but this guy had it coming." Elly said as he got close, the Riolu shrugging.

"Well, it isn't like he can't take it… He's supposedly a legendary pokémon." He smiles at Elly and then looks at Dante. "So, how's that proposal sounding to you, Dante? Feel like giving up, or do you want to keep on fighting?" He taunted once more, the rest of his companions walking over to him, all of them looking at Dante angrily.

Dante looked at them all, trapped beneath the paw. Pinned down and overpowered. He saw no chance of getting out of this alive. Even if he was to run away, he would rather die there than face punishment for failure. He readied an attack, concentrating, direct attacks didn't work… maybe it was time to attack something more than the body. Dante fell silent completely and closed his eyes, hoping this attack went unnoticed, it was one of his lasts resorts.

A few moments later, he opened them, revealing a glow that at least two of them could recognize instantly. As he opened his eyes, multiple psychic waves went loose in wide arcs towards them. "Shit! Extrasensory!" Hadrim voiced as he tried to lift a barrier to protect himself and his daughter. Leopold hugged Kaylani with his body as it glowed with a protection of his own. Jake saw the attack being unleashed and ordered everyone to run to Elly, and the Eevee brought up a psychic barrier in order to protect herself and her friends, the barrier blocking the waves, which cracked and made it tremble, which in turn hurt the Eevee, the black paw being lifted and disappearing as she lost her focus.

After this move, Dante was panting hard, but he could now stand back up. Hadrim let his cracked barrier down, it was hard for him to endure the blasts but he managed. The attack had teared the first line of trees off of their roots, while others just had their trunks split. Dante stood up and looked at them, and waited. Tired and wounded, he just needed to wait for their attack. "Don't spare me this time." He said to them. Nobody had intentions to kill him, but knocking him out and binding him was the best of course of action, and thus Eric slowly approached to hit him on the head and knock him out. However, when he was preparing to strike, a Psybeam went directly towards him from the woods, landing at his feet forcing him to roll away and point his staff in the direction it had come from. After this, an Alakazam teleported in front of the fallen Legendary, along with some other Pokémon digging out of the ground or even being teleported into the battle field, glaring at them all, ready to fight.

"What the… why are these pokémon helping him?! Nobody in their right minds would jump in and intervene in a battle that involves a Legendary…" Hadrim pointed out, and Elly closed her eyes and tried to get a feel for the ambiance's psychic wavelength… and sure enough, she found what she had been waiting for.

The pokémon thaT appeared all had the same wavelength, which meant that they were being controlled by someone who could or could not be present in that fight. "They're being mind controlled!" She exclaimed.

All of the hypnotized pokémon stopped at the same time, and then began clapping simultaneously. As they did this, another pokémon descending from above. "The vixen seems to have some tricks up her sleeve… An Eevee with psychic capabilities… and strong ones, at that. I am impressed." The Pokémon said, it's long tail floating behind him, most of his body gray and purple. It was a Mewtwo.

Mewtwo descended from above until his feet touched the sand of the beach and he slowly turned to face the defeated Suicune, snapping his fingers. A light enveloped Dante, and the next instant, his wounds were healed, and his energy had returned to an extent.

"Adam… What timing you have…" He said, but the Mewtwo didn't even bother to face him, yet slapped him with the back of his hand, leaving Dante flabbergasted.

"Foolish beast, jumping at the first chance… You should have fled instead of staying to kill your marks if you were so largely outnumbered… But alas, it seems that my entrance is opportune to you: Go! March, and kill those humans in the name of the greatest of gods! Do so, and your failure shall go unnoticed!" Adam proclaimed, pointing at the forest.

Dante just chuckled. "Heh. Should've expected this from a heartless mind like you." The Suicune said before jumping over the waters of the sea, stepping on the surface and then dashing away from there before turning towards the forest, enveloping himself in a new mist to cover his approach.

Adam laughed when Dante was out of sight and earshot, then turned to face the remaining Kaisers. "You may want to run after your children, lest you only want to recover their bloodied remains." He comments in a cheerful voice, Elly and Eric beginning to move, but two psychic blades shooting out and stopping them in their tracks. "You, on the other hand… you should wait here." He said, the wide smile being shared by every single possessed pokémon around them.

"Despicable son of a bitch." Hadrim let out for that comment. To think he respected such a monster. The Espeon quickly located the minds of his family. Luca and Dust were far from Radius, and they seemed to be fine whilst the Eevee was fighting underground. The decision was made and he ran towards the forest after picking Shade up over his back. As he ran he contacted with Luna, telling her help was coming. Her mind was focused on the fight but it seemed tired. He had to be fast and with Rad not at the surface, he wouldn't be able to use his eyes to know where they were and teleport to them.

"He will be lucky if he gets there in time… but that is not of my concern. And as for you." He turns to face Team Star. "I would ask how you got so strong… but I know the answer to that question: You come from another world." His words shocked everyone, all of them getting ready for a fight. And yet, there were others present at the scene.

"When did you became such a beast, Adam?" Leopold asked the Mewtwo, clearly disappointed. "Watch what happens when you forget your feelings. You are nothing but a heartless husk." The Lugia said, before picking up his mate and flying behind the retreating Espeon. Adam chuckled as those two left.

"Please… Save your words for someone who might listen to them! I do not care for this senseless war, or what you believe in! I have grown tired of sitting still, fighting against meager foes, trumping weaklings… and now, here I am, presented with the opportunity of a real challenge… It is simply too good for me to let the occasion pass." He said, looking at Team Star.

Lucy growled. "So basically you don't give a crap about your friend?! You just want to fight against the strongest pokémon you can find, is that it?!" She continued, once again all the hypnotized pokémon clapping in unison.

"Yes, correct! Wonderful! You're all so much more different than those weaklings… you are not cowering and trembling at my sight… and you're all keeping your eyes away from me. Clever... Might I guess that your knowledge of how psychic abilities work is attributed to your Eevee friend?" He taunted, laughing afterwards, whilst Elly glared at him, livid.

"You bastard! These pokémon are innocent, let them go!" Elly didn't like it at all that the Mewtwo was taking advantage of those innocents to do his dirty deeds, but the Mewtwo still wore that sickening smile on his face, which was shared by all his victims.

"Bah, they're but mere tools! Tools with the which artists such as myself use to achieve our goals! And when a tool isn't good enough for the job, you just have to discard it…" He snaps his fingers and the pokémon that had been beaten before were flung away. "And replace them with better, shinier ones." More pokémon to replace the ones that left, making everyone flinch at how cruel he was being. "But hey… I'm _slightly_ merciful, so how about this: You beat me in a battle, fair and square, I leave, tell ya all you want and free all of these pokémon! It's honestly one hell of a sweet deal if you ask me." Adam leans backwards, floating in midair and laying down as if he was on a hammock. "However, to get to me first… you're gonna have to test yourselves, so no overpowered powers, ok?" He teases.

"And if we go straight for you?!" The Riolu points his staff angrily at Adam, and immediately, all the pokémon around them prepare attacks, aiming at either themselves or others, about to execute eachother.

"Does this answer your question?" Adam winks an eye.

Eric growls, dismissing his light staff, and when Elly saw this, she dismissed the black sphere, getting a bad feeling about the situation. "Alright… We'll play by your rules." The Riolu claimed.

"Will there be an end to these waves of pokémon you'll be throwing at us?" Jake sneered, bringing out his claws. He could draw blood as long as it wasn't in any vital places.

"Well… I'm pretty sure you'd be able to beat the snot out of every single pokémon in this forest… but even I am not that good… so let's just say that I'll stop when that lousy Lugia father saves his kiddies. Now…" He raises high up on the air, and claps his hands, the pokémon all moving at the same time. "Begin!" His singsong voice was sickening for all of Team Star's members as they readied for a long battle.

* * *

 **Ray: am I the only one that thinks that when Mewtwo came in floating it seemed a lot like Freezer from DBZ?**

 **Eric: I don't know, but the body swap is FINALLY OVER! Yes! No more confusion! Alright, this is the first of two, so we'll be back soon with the second part! See you guys then!**

 **Ray: owww you had to tell? we hope we will be soon with this second part to make it up for the long wait for this chapter. so yeah, see ya guys! byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**


	11. Chapter 10 - Adam's Danase Macabre

**Eric: Wow… now that took way longer than it should've. The explanation for this disaster of a schedule will be in the foot AN, but for now, here are the answers to the reviews we've received on the previous chapter!**

 **Hjof: I… don't even know. Please, next time I beg of you, post a legitemate review, because… I don't even know where to begin here.**

 **Hjof, Rayrudan answered: wtf!?**

 **AveragePichu: Well, I'm glad you liked my interpretation of Mewtwo, haha… And please, don't be offended by that, I just want to know what my readers think of what we write, that's all.**

 **AP, Ray answer: The detail of the names is that i like to name everyone :P but only Pokémon know the names of Legendary Pokémon, and the one that wrote that book about them.**

 **West: I seriously doubt he has a life… But eh, you're the one who sees him on a daily basis. Anyways, I'm glad to know you're also relieved the mind swapping is over. God knows how many times we confused the names and characters ourselves while writing… And yes, they cannot catch a break, they're Team Star, of course they can't, even while eating a banana. Also, banana? Banananananana.**

 **Ray: well… I shouldn't get into this… Ok… someone went cu-cu or i'm not getting the joke**

 **Eric566: Now, without any further ado… let's go!**

 **Eric566: Banana…**

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

 **Adam's Danse Macabre**

In another place in the forest, where Kaylani's and Leopold's kits where along with some of the Kaiser. They found themselves surrounded by a group of diferent Pokémon, an Alakazam amongst them. Luna had taken on a defensive stance as she and Radius alone tried to protect the pups.

"This isn't normal. No sane Pokémon would dare attack a Legendary's offspring nor their company." Luna said looking around at their foes, one of the Phiones had a burnt mark in one arm, courtesy of a Growlithe, involving themselves in a very serious fight.

Luna was having trouble fighting against this Growlithe and a Mienshao, mostly because the Alakazam kept redirecting her fire towards her only companion or the kits, forcing her to rely on physical attacks only. "Rad, can you take that bastard down!?" She asked. Radius went underground, trying to take it by surprise, but he found himself in an underground battle against a Drilbur, keeping the Eevee out of intervening with the psychic type, leaving Luna alone on the surface to fight off the rest of the Pokémon. And she was being quickly outnumbered.

The Vulpix fought as best as she could. Until they started attacking the Phione directly. Luna got to protect them, ending with a nasty cut that the Scyther that started attacking them left on her side. The attack was a diversion however, as the bug type hit her the moment she got in the way to stop it. And that attack had her down. Immediately, the Growlithe, Mienshao, Scyther and Alakazam attacked her, giving her a beating until she couldn't even stand up. Then the Growlith approached her wearing a sided smirk of superiority, and even though it wasn't needed, he put his weight over her to pin her down, while the Scyther approached with the exact same smile on the face and rose a blade arm, ready to strike down and chop her head off.

Hadrim arrived just in time to save her from a final blow. Blasting the bug away with a psybeam and slamming his body against the fire dog to get it off of her. Shade immediately stood at her side and started to summon a wish for her.

"Where's Rad?" He asked her, and she just pointed at a hole with her tail. Hadrim would have searched his son's mind over there but the Alakazam hit him with a psywave that send the Espeon tumbling, and stood facing the Eeveelution, prepared to fight. Hadrim stood up and looked at it, baring his fangs. " _Sorry son, you'll have to wait a bit._ " He thought as he got ready to fight the Alakazam and the other three Pokémon there on the surface.

Meanwhile, underground, Rad was having some trouble since the Drilbur got some help from others of the same species. Five of them had dug a big room where Radius fell when the sixth ground type ambushed him, finding himself surrounded by them. Rad defended himself parrying with Iron Tail or blasting them away with Shadow balls. But at one time his six opponents attacked at the same time. He had to think quick, he retaliated. His swift nailed them all but this also made the damage lower since the attack wasn't concentrating in one of them, and after it, he was quickly surrounded again and the Drilbur where all around him. The Eevee concentrated for a moment and rose on his back legs to then slam his front paws down. Earthy spikes rose from it towards them, forming a spiky wall around the Eevee. Rad took advantage of the moment to dig upwards, getting to the surface again. When he saw his father, he went towards him, using a Shadow ball to blast the Mienshao attacking with a jumping kick, away from the Espeon. They formed a row between the scared Phione and their attackers. So far the pups only had been hurt by lost attacks since their foes were concentrating on Luna and Radius.

The enemies were about to attack when a blast of air took the Pokémon away from them. Lugia using his Aeroblast to push the Pokémon away from his children as Kaylani used the same move Dante had used, just that she focused on making the wave go towards the attacking Pokémon instead of all over, making them back away caught in the wave as they went to their offspring.

"Had… Heat me up, please." Luna said, approaching Hadrim and looking at him seriously. The Espeon doubted for a moment before he nodded and set his entire body ablaze, giving Luna what only can be described as a hug. Her body feeling the fire and feeding on it as her ability was triggered and enhanced her own fire abilities. Meanwhile, Shade went to Radius and put a wish on him. The Eevee got healed in a few seconds and he was ready to fight again.

* * *

In a clearing in the forest, away from where the fights were going on, Dark, Natalie, Luca and Dust where resting. The Lucario having frozen the Zoroark's wounds to avoid him loosing more blood, and telling him to rest. Dark was sitting against a tree, his eyes closed as his paws were tightly warped into feral fists. Natalie saw this and nuzzled him gently. He looked at her and sighed.

"What is it, bro?" Dust asked him.

"I'm frustrated." Dark said, simply. "All the training I've done has been for nothing at all!" He spat.

"Hey. You can't foresee that you will fight a Legendary on your first adventure." The Riolu said to him. "There are things we can't control."

"Even if that's true, Dust. I don't like relying like this on others to save my neck. I appreciate the help, but it just doesn't feel right to have others fight for me while I can't lend them a paw! I feel like a damn politician right now! Or for lack of nicer terms, like a fucking worthless piece of shit!" He said, clearly angry with himself.

Before anyone could say anything more, a thick fog rose. Dante didn't even care to keep silent this time.

"Then why don't you try fighting me face to face?" The Suicune's voice sounded within the mist and without a moment's hesitation, he started to attack Dark and Natalie. First the Eevee, making her scream in pain as he kicked her hard against a tree and then he Headbutted Dark right on the chest, taking his air away. When the mist was up, Dust quickly used his aura sight to keep track of the Suicune, but he wasn't fast enough to stop those attacks on the two he considered his siblings, yet he landed a solid hit on the side of Dante's head with a bone rush. The Suicune just blasted him away with a Hydro pump and did the same with an approaching Luca, also freezing her feet and paws to the floor. After that he went to the siblings and approached them. Dark summoned a bone rush, ready to fight. He knew he was weak but he wasn't going to give up. Not wanting anyone to get in the way this time, Dante used Ice beam to trap the three of them inside of an ice prison. Dust saw this as he recovered from the blast and ran as fast as he could to get there. He wasn't going to let the Suicune kill them. The Riolu jumped using his aura bone to reach higher and got into the dome of ice before the Suicune could finish it, smashing his bone rush with such force on the Legends head that half of it shattered to pieces and Dante actually ate the dirt.

"You will not lay a paw on my family!" Dust roared, not wasting time and running towards Dante, landing a close combat that took the water dog by surprise and made him skid backwards a bit.

Without a word, Dante lunged for Dark and Natalie, ignoring Dust, but the Riolu just blasted him with a green Aura sphere. "Fine!" Dante roared. "Wanna show you are more than big talk!? Then let's dance!" The Suicune added with a bit of a cocky tone of voice, sure of his victory. Then summoned an Hydro pulse, blasting Dark and Natalie against the ice walls. Dust this time held his ground with a new bone of aura, which was cracked from the force of the hit, but this time it endured the blow. After that, Dust shot forwards again, getting into a fight with the Legend. As much as he landed blows and dodged, blocked and parried, Dante did the same, from time to time trying to attack the Korel siblings, interrupted by the Shiny Riolu, who was putting all of himself in this battle. It was on a particularly hard hit, that made Dante stumble backwards and spit blood again, this time no broken fang went out, that he snapped.

"Enough!" He roared and concentrated, surrounding himself in a water sphere. "I'm sick of your intrusions! You three will drown inside this dome!" He roared as he released the surf mixed with an hydropulse that this time blasted the three of them against the ice walls.

* * *

 **From here seek and listen to: Deep Anxiety - Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix Music Extended**

Leopold was defending his children and his mate. The Lugia keeping an eye on everyone, friend or foe. Sending the controlled Pokémon that came too close away with his wings. Meanwhile, Luna had the same two Pokémon that almost killed her trapped in a ring of fire, a tactic she had learned from certain fire male, and for the which she **might** thank him later… or not. This time however, she was in control. The Growlithe had his fire out of the question and could feel the danger of hers after she was fed from the flames of the Espeon for nearly a minute and a half while the Lugia and the Eevee kept them at bay. The Vulpix surrounded herself in fire and launched herself towards the other fire dog, who tried to dodge but was too slow as her fire blitz nailed him and she bite down hard on him, spinning and throwing him against a rock inside of the ring.

Without wasting time, she launched herself at the Scyther who prepared to parry and counter her, but her fire was too hot to handle now and he couldn't cut more than a few hairs of her fur before having to put his scythes like arms out by digging them on the ground. Moment Luna used to tackle the bug and with a strong hit of her tails and back paws, send him out of the fire ring, where Radius, upon seeing the bug, jumped and landed an Iron tail, knocking the bug out, before going back to his own opponents, a Mienshao and a Banette. The Eevee was in trouble but he kept his ground nevertheless. However, this wasn't like the other times, this Pokémon won't stop if he was knocked out, this wasn't any kind of spar and he had that very present.

Rad looked at them, waiting for any of them to make a move. The first was the Banette with a Dark pulse, the which he blew up with a Shadow ball, then came Mienshao with Close Combat, Radius dodged how he could, even parrying with iron tail and and at the last second pushing the Fighting type back with another Shadow ball. After this, he didn't stood in place, and dashed forwards with a quick attack towards the Banette with an idea in mind, The ghost type didn't move, seeing the kit come at it with an attack that would just go through. Mienshao tried to land a new attack on the running Eevee, but Rad just dodged and launched at the Banette, fangs bared but he didn't bite.

As predicted, the Eevee went through with his Quick attack. But then an explosion drove the ghost type face first into the ground. Rad had tricked it, using Shadow ball after being behind the Pokémon and then came close, biting hard on its arm and then stomped the ghost against the floor. However, he ended paws up doing this, exposed for a high jump kick that was already coming to him, until a psychic wave threw the Mienshao away. Hadrim helping his son as much as he could while he was facing an Alakazam. Three more Pokémon laying knocked out around them as this two kept their fight. Alakazam went with the psychic blades while Hadrim stood unarmed and then ran at the other Psychic. Parrying a slash with a forwards flip and an Iron tail, launching a Shadow ball of his own at his enemy, pushed forwards by a Psybeam. The Alakazam quickly protected itself with a barrier and sent a big rock towards Had, who dodged it and attacked again with a psywave, the barrier protecting the Alakazam once again as his eyes glowed for a moment. Then something triggered into Hadrim's mind, he saw himself hit by some invisible force and then all went to normal. " _Fuck!_ " He thought as he launched a new attack and rose a barrier to the protect himself. He felt the strike hit the barrier from everywhere at once, the Premonition being blocked. However, before the Alakazam could attack again, a Vulpix slammed against him.

Luna stood up quickly and kicked back to the fight against the other fire type, her fire ring had died down and this had let the other dog much more room to attack her, yet she wouldn't let him scare her. She ran at him and they both slammed and rolled together on the ground, biting, clawing and the one beneath trying to push off the one on top. In the end they both separated and Luna launched a Flame Burst at him, the Growlithe dodged but he wasn't prepared for the Fire blitz she put on him right after, followed by a double kick and finished with a strangely powerful Dark Pulse at close range that slammed the fire dog against a three and let him hanging there, fainted.

Luna was about to boast when she heard Radius and dodged a kick using feint, ending by the Eevee's side and ready to fight against this foe with him now. Radius was readying another Shadow ball and running towards the fighting type, he tackled it to the ground and stood on its chest, blowing the ghostly sphere on his face and jumping backwards. When the smoke cleared, the Mienshao was down for the count.

Leopold was impressed with this display from the young Pokémon. However, there was still one more foe to defeat. Facing the two psychics battling he saw them stock still. Glowing amber eyes locked onto glowing golden ones. The Lugia caught up quickly, the two of them were in a mind struggle. Hadrim was putting all his willpower to try and break the hold that Mewtwo held over the other Psychic, but this was fighting him back with just as much force. Psychic blasts went here and there as a mutual psychic connection came to be. The Alakazam trying to extend its master's control to the other while the Espeon defended himself and tried to break it. Dirt rising around them as the psychics waves passed by them. Who ever said a battle of psychics is only a physical battle? Hadrim was having troubles as the Alakazam gained terrain on him, the Espeon pushing back, keeping in mind in the back of his head that he still had to go check on the others.

The Espeon fought the influence, protecting his mind as much as he could to avoid ending as another puppet to the puppeteer at the beach. However, something caught his mind. a glimpse of the Alakazam's own, the Pokémon semed to be pleased with the power it harnessed. " _Why should I give up this wonderful power?_ " he heard. " _Master Adam has gifted me with psychic powers you can't even reach, Espeon. When I am done with you I'll make you tell me where you live, and I'll kill every single member of your family. Then your children will become my personal slaves. That Vulpix for example sure has a nice figure, and that female Eevee there-_ " Hadrim roared so loud that it made the Alakazam flinch and shut up. His psychic force wavered and Had took advantage, breaking through the mental barriers as a strong psychic wave wafted the battle field, leaving the Alakazam dizzy and defenseless. Hadrim picked him up and rose him with his psychic. Big boulders were yanked from the ground and started to orbit around the other Psychic, who tried to break the hold of the Espeon over his body, but the strength of the Espeon had somehow grown to surpass his and he couldn't break free.

" _Never… Dare you threaten… My family again!_ " Hadrim said back as his face held a vicious snarl. The boulders stopped rotating around the Alakazam and all at the same time were crashed against the psychic type. For a moment Had held the rocks floating, until he saw a drop of blood falling from them, it was them that he slammed it all down on the ground, uncovering the Alakazam. The bastard had enough luck to end just fainted, though one of his arms was bent one more time than usual, the bone broken, and blood came from the cut it made through muscle and skin and from various cuts on his body.

 **(music ends)**

Without much more words or even more than a look at the fallen enemy, Hadrim turned around and went to Rad and Luna, who were receiving a wish from Shade. "You two okay?" He asked worried.

"Never been better!" Luna cheered with a smile.

"Don't worry, dad. I got this." Radius said with a smile.

Shade also smiled at his father and as with the others put a wish on him. The three of them were shocked by what the Espeon had done to that Alakazam, neither three of them had ever seen him do anything like that in their lives. Yet they tried not to show fear to the Espeon, after all this was a real fight. Of course, none of them knew what the Alakazam had said to make Had this mad. Leopold on other side was looking at the Espeon, once again impressed by the strength displayed. " _I am positive to say that our two guests are in great paws._ " He thought but didn't say anything.

"Mr. Leopold." Hadrim called. "Take care of your children, we'll be good for now. Just take care of your family and we'll take care of ours." The Espeon said after he located the mind of Dark and the others, discovering they were fighting against Dante and in trouble.

"Be fast. Dante has them in a tight spot at the moment." Leo said to them. Hadrim nodded and immediately ran in their direction, the others quick on his tail.

* * *

Eric punched the lights out of one final Shiftry, who fell backwards and lifted sand with it's fall. Meanwhile, the rest of his team mates were finishing up their own fights, and yet Adam kept on staring, rolling his eyes as the last hypnotized pokémon fell, being swept away by an invisible force. "Jeez, you guys **really** are something! You beat up all of 'em… and didn't even break a sweat! Congratulations, seriously, you won. Now we move on to the second stage... " He teleports, vanishing from view, and reappearing on the ground, blasting all seven of them away with a psychic blast, sending them flying to the beach, everyone quickly recovering from the unexpected attack. "Leopold saved his kits, whoopy-doo, what a heartwarming reunion that must be…" He explained his reasons for stopping the attack of the hypnotized pokémon.

Lucy stands up, gritting her teeth. "You're a real piece of filth, you know that?" Adam only laughs in response, making the Shinx realize she was probably being too nice with him.

"What do you hope to win by defeating us anyways, Adam?! It's not like it's gonna happen anyways, but… Just curious!" Nox was flaring up again, knowing that he didn't have to hold back against this opponent, but his question was a good one, and Zed frowned, just like Jake put the pieces together.

"I think I have a pretty good idea…" The Zorua mentioned sombrely, leaving the explanation to whoever wished to end that train of thought.

Jake took up the silent offer, his face impassive, yet a hint of disgust appearing as he turned to face Adam again. "He wishes to beat us to an inch of our lives, then take control of our bodies and use us for his dirty deeds." The Sneasel confirmed, confirming the Zed and Elly's fears, and surprising everyone else in the team. Adam smiles and claps his hands.

"Clever! You're really clever, it'll be hard to break into that brain of yours… and yeah, I told you all before: If a tool doesn't do the job, the artist throws it away and gets himself a new set! And new, shinier, and far more powerful set than any he has ever laid his eyes on." His smile twists into a disturbing smirk, his eyes starting to emit a purplish glow as he prepares for battle. Eric resummoned his light staff, and Elly summons the black sphere as well, whilst Zed's claws start glowing purple, Lucy's fur crackles with electricity, Serge flaps his wings, Jake drew his claws again and Nox started breathing flames through his nostrils.

 **(Impossible - Transistor)**

The first sun beams shone against the water as the celestial body rose over the horizon, bathing them with its first lights. After a few more seconds of standing still, Adam teleports, appearing between them and blasts them apart from eachother with a psychic wave, heading after Zed first, who landed close to Nox. The Zorua quickly morphed into a Graveler and blocked a psychic charged hook, but he didn't manage to block following overhead, having to jump backwards, sand raising up and allowing Adam to land a cheap blow on the Zorua, kicking him away, Nox jumping in afterwards and trying to bite down on his tail. He did so, Adam howling out, but this appendage was for far more than just show, and the Houndour was flung away at intense speeds towards the Graveler, who grabbed him in time.

Without touching the ground, the Mewtwo flew at them, Zed throwing Nox up into the air and letting him rain fire, Adam having to stop it with a psychic barrier, then Zed following up by charging into Adam and carrying him away, then tossing him back and against a howling Lucy, who slammed her back legs against his back as she stopped running for a second, turned around and donkey kicked him, Adam teleporting immediately afterwards, holding his back as he reappeared.

"Alright, pretty good for being the weakest." He said, readying two shadow balls, releasing them both at the two groups, Zed and Nox running away whilst Lucy dodged the one headed towards her and ran at Adam at intense speeds. The Mewtwo however, was smarter than that, and wasn't to be fooled so easily. As Lucy ran past him and went to strike in from the back, he turned around and rose a psychic barrier, lifting up sand in the process, she slammed against it with force, and then he punched it, breaking it into pieces and hitting Lucy away, cuts appearing on her body.

She screamed and landed on her feet. " _Damn, this guy is smart!_ " She announced through telepathy, starting to run away and throwing a bolt of lightning as Nox offered support with some fire, trying to cut off possible escape routes for the Mewtwo whilst Serge and Zed, transformed into a Pidgey swooped in, large barriers cutting Eric, Elly and Jake's advancements, making some sort of maze of sand to try and encase them. Serge dived in, landing and turning around as he did so, lifting his wing from the sand extremely quickly, aiming to cut Adam in half. The Mewtwo saw the cutting attack and summoned a psychic blade of his own, longer than Elly's, and several of the attacks as Serge spun towards him, pushing against the last strike and throwing Serge off balance. Zed coming in from behind and pecking the back of his head, distracting him momentarily to allow Serge to recover from the parry.

The Pidgeot continued his assault, slashing from multiple angles whilst Adam blocked skillfully, albeit taking steps back and towards Nox's flames, whilst swatting Zed away with his other hand, grabbing his head as he transformed into a Cranidos and smashing him into Serge, then teleported behind them to deal a decisive blow with his blade. However, Lucy came to the rescue again, this time striking with a thunderbolt and shocking him momentarily, before Nox blasted him away with a fireball, clearing an escape route for Serge and Zed, who flew up again, this time Zed as his normal Zorua self.

Serge went to get the rest of his teammates whilst Lucy and Nox distracted Adam, but by the time he got there, Eric smashed throu gh the last wall and roared as he rushed at the Mewtwo, kicking up sand with each step, whilst Elly destroyed the wall with psychic powers of her own and launched a slought of psychic power, sand waving in the air as it was picked up by the invisible force, hitting the general area where Adam was like a whip, making everyone there get away and the Mewtwo teleport to Elly's location, Elly summoning psychic blades as he came down on her, grasping his own with both hands. She pushed him away and Jake landed on top of Adam, stomping his head and then falling down along his back, the Sneasel throwing two slashes in the form of a cross, drawing purplish blood, whilst Elly used her black sphere to create a giant black Riolu fist and smash him towards the actual Riolu, who stood still with his staff in both paws, waiting for the last second before striking upwards, hitting the Mewtwo once as he rose up, turning around in midair, then hitting him again and sending the psychic legendary higher up, and finally releasing his light staff and letting it blow up in his face.

However, by then, the Mewtwo was gone, teleporting to the middle of the beach and snapped his fingers, his wounds healing once more, then crossed his arms as two shadowy claws burst from the tips of his fingers and glared at his opponents, all of them charging at the same time. Eric came in first, jumping and slamming his fist into the sand as it missed it's mark, rolling underneath the claw as Zed came in right after him, once again a Cranidos, but Adam had already seen that trick, and merely stomped on him and gained leverage, jumping over him and doing a flip into the air, his tail swatting Lucy away as he rose, the claws transforming into spheres which he launched to his sides, exploding and blowing sand everywhere.

Serge flapped his wings and returned it, then a half buried Eric burst out with his light staff and swung at Adam's legs, Elly screaming the Mewtwo's name at the top of her lungs as she slashed at his body, but he merely twisted again and flew away between the two almost simultaneous attacks, two icicles trailing after him, flipping to get his feet back on the sand and breaking one of them, grabbing the other and returning it to its sender, the Sneasel gracefully jumping out of the way, although Nox quickly melted the icicle just in case the Mewtwo wanted to use it for later. Adam smirked and summoned both a shadowy claw and the large psychic blade, then flew towards them with a murderous look. This proved to be fun.

 **(Stop the music)**

* * *

Luca was throwing all she had towards the icy dome. The sound of fighting inside making her both think the worst and be relieved, and spurred her to keep throwing Aura spheres at the wall, trying to break through it. The thick dome of ice cracked but there was no sign that she was going to break through anytime soon, even when she started smashing it with her ice hammer. After a bit, Hadrim, Shade, Radius and Luna appeared besides her, teleporting in as the Espeon managed to use his mate's memory to locate the place. She looked at them for a moment before Suicune started to roar and it's shadow turned into a sphere.

Radius quickly dug a hole and started moving, hoping that the dome had nothing under. Fortunately there was no ice underground and he could pass the Ice wall. The Eevee heard steps over him and dug towards them, coming out in front of the ground along with a rush of fresh air and oxygen. Without much words, the Eevee faced Dante, who released a huge wave. Hastily raising on two legs and smashing his paws down, Rad rose an earthy wall in front of them all that endured the powerful wave and the water pulse, cracking and with some leaks of water. At least they had a chance.

"To the hole! Now!" Rad said. Natalie looked from where he had come out and made a run for it. Being smaller she could just ran through without a problem. Dust hesitated for a moment, seeing the hole so small it made him shudder but in the end the Riolu dragged himself through it. Dark had much more trouble just by being larger than the hole. The Zoroark cursed and looked behind him, summoning attack after attack to try and break the ice wall, he even tried to melt it but he wasn't able to do much.

"Damnit!" He cursed and turned to look at Rad, who was still trying to hold the earth barrier. The Eevee was struggling as, at the other side, Dante kept launching attack after attack. "Rad! get out!" he yelled at the Eevee.

"Are you crazy? you go first!" He answered.

"I don't fit in that hole!" The Zoroark protested.

"Then make it bigger!" Rad countered. "I'm not leaving you behind, bro."

At this, Dark had no words for it. In the end, he went back to try and break or melt the Ice wall behind him. Dante's attacks were stronger each time he attacked, Rad's earth wall wasn't going to put up for much longer, and the Eevee was getting tired of holding it, feeling the heat of the Zoroark behind him trying to melt the ice wall.

Meanwhile, out, Natalie had heard her brother through the hole. "We have to do something, damnit!" She said, trying to make the hole bigger herself, but she wasn't doing much progress. Shade stepped forwards to help her, being more used to the move, she was able to make it a bit bigger, but still not enough. However, before the shiny Eevee could start to make the hole bigger, the corners of Rad's wall crashed under the pressure and water started to flood their side. Even sinking into their little escape route. "Fuck!" The normally clean mouthed Eevee cursed herself, Radius tried to remake the corners but Dante's Hydro pump kept blasting them open. The water level rising as Dark kept trying to melt the ice. More fire being seen from the other side as Luna decided to aid while doing the same thing that in the previous fight, but still it was a very hard task, even with Luca smashing her hammer and Aura spheres at the cracking ice, Natalie with her own Shadow balls and Dust's own attacks as well.

Above, the sky started to get clouded. Clouds appearing and as they grew together into a big grey one, the thunder rumbled. In a moment, a massive storm cloud was over half of the island, but the thunder seemed to be concentrated over the area where the Kaiser were trying to free their trapped family. Luca felt something, but she ignored it, more concerned for her children, but Dust stopped his attacks, and looked upwards. Electricity was accumulating at some point, and his eyes grew wide.

" **Back off!** " The Riolu called for them. Hadrim, Luna, Natalie and Luca looking at him and then, hearing the rumbling, looked up. And jumped away just in time to avoid a massive thunder that fell over the dome. The ice cracking like glass and exploding everywhere. Hadrim put up a barrier to protect them, big chunks of ice smashing against it for a moment before it stopped. When the dust settled and the ice dome came into view, it was demolished, Dark, Radius and Shade panting on the ground, soaked to the bone as Dante lay away from them, electricity jumping from him and some scorching marks on his body.

"Never thought of you as one to bend to the will of a crazed god, Dante." Came a very old sounding voice, from seemingly everywhere. Another thunder fell, flashing them blind for an instant, before they saw, where it landed, another big quadruped Pokémon was there. With yellow fur, the tail twisting like a thunderbolt and a light lilac mane over its back, also with the black marks on its body. It's body resembling that of a sabercat, complete with two big fangs. Raikou was standing in between the Suicune and the three young Pokémon recovering their breaths, facing the Suicune, who used an Aqua ring to recover a bit.

"What would you know… you old glory." He answered as he stood, coughing slightly. His body covered in cuts from his own obliterated ice dome, now healing from his recovering move. "You won't understand why this has to be done." He said, trying to buy some time.

"I do understand that humans had been greedy this time. Wanting to harness the power of a god. Trying to take his place, and thus only managing to kill themselves and other species in the process." Raikou said, as she saw another ring of water healing the Suicune, but for now it was a time for time. "I get that they deserve to be punished. However, I do not share that extinction is the right punishment for them. It is just like with the Yorlin. Dailos ordered to cleanse the world, then he forbid them from being born again. The world has its balance and you know it. If there is a kind that harness a god's power, the others would comprehend this power better and know not to mess with it. Without it the others will only yearn for it at some point, and will try to achieve it without caring about the consequences." She added, glancing back to see Shade and Radius standing up with the help of Luca and Dust, Hadrim had gone to help Dark, Natalie going with the Espeon.

"You three okay?" Luna asked them, worried.

"Yeah… just out of breath." Rad said still panting slightly as he recovered. Unfortunately, Dante was also recovered again.

"You know pretty well those bastards had it coming to them, Ren! Don't try to sell me now that myth about the Keeper or whatever bullshit you can think of!" He said. "I am going to kill those humans and then nothing will make him have to worry again!" With this said he launched an Ice beam at her, Ren just send a Thunderbolt to counter him, both attacks exploding on collision and rising a new cloud of dust. The area around them, previously a little clearing in the forest was now a field since a few tree lines had fallen down after the dome was crashed by the thunder and the water and the ice had flooded the area, making the clearing a lot more bigger.

"You are still a child it seems, Dante." She said. "If it's you want… Then a fight you'll get." She declared. Her old lady voice rising as she roared and electricity covered their surroundings in an electric field. Thunder roaring in the cloud in the sky.

 **(For this seek and listen to: Dust: An Elysian Tail OST - 11 - Deities)**

Electricity danced around Ren and over the field as she locked eyes with the Suicune. He was the one to start, launching at her with an Aquajet. She responded with a Wild charge. The two moves collided and the two Legendaries separated from each other, Ren kept her composure while Dante was infuriated. He launched an Ice beam at her, the which she dodged with a sidestep and then ran at him, her fangs crackling with electricity. Dante bared his, covered in a thin layer of Ice.

Again they wrestled, this time rolling on the ground, trying to get the upper position while attempting to land a bite on the other. In the end, Dante changed for an Extrasensory and Ren discharged her electricity. The two attacks cancelled each other, a new cloud of damp dust rose and covered them for an instant. More trees being put down by the force of the explosion. Hadrim protecting his family as best as he could, his barrier cracking every now and then. The momentary cloud of dust was enough to allow Dante to land a blow, sending Ren backwards a bit with an Aurora beam. After this, The Suicune summoned his mist to cover the battlefield. Hiding the Suicune in a fog only he could see through.

Ren found herself quickly surrounded by the dense fog, and Dante took advantage of her blindness to land a few hits on her. He was getting ready a Hydro Pump to blast her when a green Aura sphere flew right towards his face, blowing up and throwing him off.

"Be a male, Dante!" Dust's voice called. "You can't hide from my sight so show yourself!" The Riolu challenged. His eyes open and the irises emitting an auric glow and gaining a slight tint of green. He was using his Aura sight, with open eyes, and had a bone rush in one of his paws, ready to fight. Dante growled at him and ran at the Riolu, ready to bite his head off. Dust got ready, used to the Suicune's moves by now and stepped aside to dodge and swung his Aura bone. The Shiny Riolu hit the Legendary on a shoulder, unbalancing and making him lose his foot and fall down. The fog cleared after a bit. Dante livid now, attacked again, this time approaching with an Aquajet. Dust couldn't dodge in time and tried to block the move, but his Aura weapon broke on impact and the Riolu was bitten hard on an arm and thrown aside. Dust let out a howl of pain, once down he sat up and looked at Dante, seeing the Suicune coming at him he readied another Aura Sphere but Ren beat him to attack the Water type, ramming against him and both of them wrestling again.

Shade took advantage to go to her older brother and, as quickly as she could, made a wish for him. Dust's arm was much better after a bit, even though the wound was still there, it was less deeper than it had been previous to the healing. The Riolu immediately rose up to his feet, readied a new Aura bone and went back to battle. The fog was gone, so now they could fight better. Luca jumped into action too, waiting for an opening before trying to land a hit that Suicune just dodged. Dust ran into the fight action and attacked, his blow connecting but Dante held his bone with his mouth and he just crunched it into pieces. Dust cursed again and blowed up an Aura sphere up close to his face, making the Suicune step back for it. Hadrim summoned a Psybeam to push the legend even more back. Until he roared and summoned another Extransensory, Luca and Dust being blown away by the hit and Hadrim protecting himself, Luna, Shade, Rad, Dark and Natalie, Luca landing in front of him. The Espeon approaching her quickly and she sat up, panting.

Radius was finally recovered. Seeing this, the Eevee stood behind his father for a moment. Then he heard Dust roaring and going right back into the battle. He too wanted to do something. The Eevee ran into the battlefield. The electricity on it cracking at his paws, yet he ignored it and went directly towards the Suicune, going faster with a quick attack. Once close, Rad jumped and bite down on Dante's face. the Eevee was thrown away with a head shake, yet he landed on his feet and went back to running with another Quick attack. Dust came back and landed a hard punch on the water dog's head, followed by a double kick using all the strength he could. Dust used the kick to get space between them, and Ren followed by ramming into Dante with another wild charge, shocking Dante to the point of convulsing.

Watching this, Dark didn't want to be less, and stood up, just to be stopped by Natalie and Luna. He looked at them and then at the fight ahead again. The fight was on, but, surprisingly for Ren, her electric field didn't last as long as she remembered.

"You are growing weak, Old glory." Dante taunted while she looked around and then set a new field and looked around. She noticed something. The young male Eevee was making her field react. The electricity surrounded and danced around his paws and he didn't even noticed. She looked at it, curious, but had not much time before Suicune rammed into her with an Aquajet. "Getting distracted?" He asked, taunting her but she only sent a Thunderbolt at him, which he dodged by jumping aside, same with the Aura sphere that Dust threw at him. Luca was still sitting down, Shade by her side as the Extrasensory had really done damage to her. Even with Shade's help, Luca couldn't move much.

"You should go." Ren said to them, taking advantage of Dante being busy with Dust and Rad. Hadrim looked at her and at their kits with worry. "Don't worry. They can take care of themselves pretty well." She said. With this, Had stood and helped Luca and the both of them retired towards the treeline, Shade, Luna, Dark and Natalie doing the same.

Meanwhile, Dust and Radius kept their pressure, until Dante forced them to dodge by summoning a huge wave once more to get some room. Once the attack was out, Dante was about to attack Dark and Natalie, but Ren made a Thunder fall on him, stopping him by making him dodge once again. The Suicune looked at her, and then at the approaching Riolu and Eevee. Dust went for a close combat but Dante just kicked him away and then headbutted Rad to counter his quick attack, the Eevee landed on his side and rolled a bit, and then he rammed into Ren with another Aquajet, making her fall on her side.

"It is time that the Legendary saber cat gets a replacer." Suicune said approaching her while she stood up. The both of them locked eyes once more. Dust was recovering his breath a bit, this fight was taking its toll on him. The Legends were about to go at each other again, but a white blur hit Dante right in the face, making the Suicune look aside and stop. Without letting up, another hit. Ren could see it was the young male Eevee, using his quick attack repeatedly on the other Legendary. However, what took her off guard was the improved speed of the kit. Somehow he was faster and not only that, when he finally stopped, he seemed to be taller and his fur looked like it was changing in coloration. Then she saw the electricity at his paws and she realized. Without wasting time, the Raikou launched herself at Dante as well, ramming into him and then feinted around him, in a way that she had the Eevee right in front of her, at the other side of the water type, and then she summoned a Thunderbolt. The thunder above roaring as Dante sidestepped and the attack flew directly at Radius, who's run away ability would have helped him dodge it, however, something told him to stay in place and he got the full force of the lighting. Electricity danced all over his body as his fur puffed up for the static, the Eevee growing a bit more and his fur gaining a more orange tint. Once he recovered, Rad launched himself at Dante once again, the Legendary was taken aback by the speed and got hit once again in the head, this time having the Eevee biting down on him again. Dante roared in pain, not only from the bite but also because he could feel the electricity running through the samal's pokémon body and shocking him slightly, until he got rid of him by jerking his head a few times until Rad let go, and landed on his feet.

The Suicune was about to attack when he went stock still. The electric field was gone again, the Eevee had his fur spiked up and it was now completely orange, electricity dancing around his body, that had almost reached Hadrim's size. Thunder fell down from the sky, landing on Radius and covering the Eevee in electricity until his body wasn't visible. More lightnin falling down on the Eevee as everyone stood looking, not able to do anything, their bodies wouldn't respond for the moment, until Dante shook his head and prepared an Ice beam to launch at him, but Ren stopped him using Wild charge. After a bit, the thunder stopped, but the Eevee was still covered by the electricity, this jumping around as if he was a tesla bovine.

Ren realized what was happening and that he needed a bit more of help, but while she got ready, Dante took advantage to attack Radius. Dust got in the way, managing to take his eyes off of his brother and stepping in front of Dante to protect him. "You won't touch him!" He said as he dismissed his bone and threw a barrage of Aura spheres at Dante. His firerate wasn't the best, but it was enough to slow down the water type. In the end, Dante passed over Dust, kicking him to the mud, but when he was about to attack Radius, Ren let out a mighty roar and a huge thunder fell over the Pokémon. Dante stopped out of reaction and an instant after he was blown away by an electric wave that let lose the accumulated electricity around Radius, most of it being absorbed by the recently evolved Eeveelution. The electricity crackled around him as he opened his brown eyes once again.

Instead of looking at himself. Radius went back into the fight. He was much faster than before. Somehow, he knew what to do and how to do it. The now Jolteon covered his body in electricity and rammed himself against Dante's chest, electrocuting the Legendary aside of making him skid backwards a bit, Rad finished his attack with a potent thunderbolt, to the whcih Ren added her own and both attacks hit Dante, making him let out a howl of pain as he was utterly scorched beyond healing by his Aqua ring.

 **(music ends here)**

"How… how could you… defeat me?" Dante asked laying on the mud, not being able to move because of the pain and the paralysis the attacks had made on him. Ren approached him calmly while Dust, Radius, Luna, Shade, Dark and Natalie stood back, keeping their guards up just in case.

"They are protecting their family, Dante." She simply said to him sounding more motherly this time around with him. Dante looked at her.

"I see… I gotta admit… It was a fun battle." He said chuckling slightly trying to ignore the pain. "Yes… they are strong… and those two have… potential." He added, looking at Dark and Natalie by the end of his words before he looked back at her. "Dailos won't… take my failure lightly…" He finished, forcing himself to stand up.

"Stay down." Ren said, trying to keep him down but he rose to his paws either way, Dust and Radius getting ready to go back to the fight, Even Dark prepared an Aura bone, he was fed up of just looking this fight that had started because of him and Nat. Dante looked at them. He'd been defeated, and coming back would mean a painful death. The Suicune turned away.

"I better disappear for the time being." And with that, he started limping away, surrounding himself in a very thick fog that dissipated as he went off.

"He's gone." Ren said. With this words, Dust let himself fall on his knees, grunting and panting hard. Dismissing his Aura sight he quickly grew blind, his silver eyes closing on their own when he lost the sense as he recovered. The Riolu stood there in place, until he felt someone nuzzling his side.

"You okay?" It was Rad's voice. Dust searched with his paw until he felt he touched something. It was a paw and he went up, feeling the shoulder and the neck, until he felt the muzzle.

"Rad?" He asked, smiling feeling the spiky fur. "Looks like… you just needed a bit more of energy." He joked, smiling and Radius actually laughed slightly.

"Yeah. Had I known earlier, I would have plugged my tail in a wall socket!" Both brothers laughed a bit, until the others came to them and Shade cheered for her brother. Luna smiled with her tails wagging. Natalie was also happy to see that he became what he wanted to be, and also smiled. Dark had a bittersweet taste on this whole thing. On one side he was happy Radius got what he wanted, on another he felt horrible for not being able to help in the battle. Yet he pushed bad thoughts aside and cheered with them. Hadrim and Luca joined them not very long after, and both Lucario and Espeon were greatly surprised to see their evolved son. Dust on his part stood up, with a small aura bone in a paw as he was still tired from the fight and to use it as a stick to walk.

"We should go with the others." He said and everyone agreed. Radius let out a relieved sigh and his fur went down and smooth, which honestly surprised Dark and Natalie, since they have never seen a Jolteon with smooth fur instead of spiky, let alone one with orange fur and long tail like Rad had turned out to have and to top it all. After a moment the Zoroark looked at Radius, then at Ren and back at the Jolteon and then to the Raikou and like that a few times more.

"Wait… Rad… you have Ren's marks on your fur." Dark commented seeing that he indeed had black fur forming patterns like those that Ren had. The Raikou approached hearing this and seeing them all looking him over.

"Do not fret, kits. It is just a pattern on the fur. Maybe because he absorbed my electricity. I am not sure. But it's nothing to worry about. I'd say more, that together with your fur colour and your tail makes you an even more unique Jolteon." She reassured them.

"Um… Miss Ren." Natalie started but she was interrupted.

"Oh dear. Call me just Ren." She said warmly at the little Eevee.

"Oh… Okay. Ren… Why did Dante want to kill my brother and I?" She asked.

To this, the Raikou went serious all of a sudden. "You two have potential. A lot of it. None of us knows exactly why but it makes Dailos worried. He wants your heads so he will not have anything to worry about to cleanse this world and get rid of humanity forever." She answered. "I am not telling you are the only ones that can defeat him, but you can be a major help on that feat." She added. "But be careful. Dante was only the first that came after you wanting to gain Dailos' favor. More will come and stronger. You two have to be prepared for them. It is not sure that you'll get help of one of us that is against Dailos." She said.

"Don't worry ma'am. We'll make sure to put them in shape." Dust joked and laughed a bit, but he was serious.

"I truly hope so, young Riolu. As I hope you recover your sight soon." She answered.

"This? Don't worry, I'll be fine. Even then, thank you for your concern." He said to her, bowing slightly his head.

"I wonder how the others are doing." Luna said, looking towards the general direction of the temple. No one said a word for a bit.

"Don't worry. That group can handle whatever comes at them, for sure." Dust said, and most of them agreed. Even then, their worry was still there.

* * *

Adam roared out and lifted four trees off the ground, then launched them one after another at the team. Eric jumped up and ran along the first tree, jumping up to the second and somersaulting towards the third, to then do a handstand, jump and plunge down on Adam with a charged aura kick, whilst Serge flew around the trees skillfully and the others dodged, Adam steered to the right and dodged the strike, which left a crater and lifted a veil of sand, which Eric used to his advantage to summon another staff and try and hit Adam, but the Mewtwo saw through him, blocking the weapon with his hands and then hurling him over his shoulder, making sure to toss the weapon away before it blew up spectacularly. He turned around and locked his eyes with the Riolu's, who closed them immediately and was picked up by Serge, who then hurled him upwards by spinning, letting Eric just enough time to charge both of his arms with aura, and then come down with both fists on the psychic type's head.

Zed transformed into a Graveler and grabbed an uprooted tree, seeing it was the perfect chance as Adam blocked the strike from above with an invisible barrier whilst he struggled against Serge's wings. He spun it around and hurled it at Adam, attempting to catch him off guard. But their foe had several years worth of battling behind him, and knew that something was coming when Eric and Serge looked behind him, as well as the sound of the massive tree flying towards him through the air. He turned to face it, and in just one swift and calm move, he jumped, avoiding Serge's wings and pushing Eric back whilst his right foot glowed, a blade appearing and grabbing it with his toes, before slicing the tree in half, locking eyes with the shocked Graveler. The Mewtwo teleported behind him and readying a shadow claw, but Zed blocked the attack with a stone arm before Lucy came in at high speeds and crashed against the Mewtwo, albeit he stopped her in her tracks with a psychic barrier on his side, which shattered. His right foot, the one with the which he had summoned that psychic blade, trembled under the Mewtwo's weight, as it was weaker, and he lost his balance, groaning as he fell, forcing him to back down, as Nox came in transformed in a wheel of fire and scared the Mewtwo away, raising several psychic walls of sand and boxing them in.

"You bastards… forcing me to use that technique…" He looked at his foot, it was slightly bent. He had used his own psychic energy through a point he wasn't used to, and in an odd manner. It was an insanely difficult technique… and here he was. These guys… they definitely were something.

"Eyes down here!" Elly locked eyes with the Mewtwo as soon as she could, and the two began fighting against one another. Adam was an extremely capable psychic, and his powers were incredible, but so were Elly's, and soon it came down to their knowledge and mental density. They tried to force the other's eyes off of eachother, but contrary to what Elly had expected, he was putting up a valiant resistance, and she wasn't used to duels that lasted this long. However, Eric saved the day by vaulting with his staff over the newly arisen wall and smashed him away, through his barriers and sand, and towards the trees. After quickly grouping up again, everyone watched as Adam jumped out of the trees with a fist enveloped in shadows, Eric, Serge and Jake being the first to run in, whilst the other four stayed close behind to offer support or run in if they were knocked away.

Adam smashed his fist into the Riolu's staff, and the three combatants entered an incredibly quick fight with the Mewtwo, sparks and weapons clashing and flying off constantly as they all jumped and rolled to avoid their opponent's strikes. Jake slashed horizontally and Adam bent upwards, floating in midair and kicked the Sneasel away, Elly taking his spot as she began attacking with two psychic blades insanely quickly, forcing Adam to move even quicker to dodge every strike as he kept spinning around in order to dodge all of their strikes. He managed to duck under both Serge's and Eric's attacks, punching the Pidgeot away and kicking Elly and Eric down. The Riolu got up faster than he predicted, and the psychic type found himself pinned between Serge, who brought his right wing down on his psychic blade, initiating a struggle between the two as sparks flied off, and Eric drove his weapon forward and into the Mewtwo's shadow claw, also initiating a struggle. It ended soon, however, as Adam spun around, bringing Eric with him and dodging Serge's wing, slamming his two attackers against eachother, missing Jake by just a few inches as he ran in, the Mewtwo's tail attempting to slam against his head, but the Sneasel ducked under it.

Adam focused on the other two combatants and didn't pay much attention to his surroundings, which was, in the end, his downfall: As he launched a shadow ball at the knocked back duo, Eric forcing himself to block it with his staff, blowing both of the energy objects up and sending Eric and Serge tumbling across the entire beach, severely wounding them, Jake came in and slashed at his belly, the Mewtwo parrying the attack with his shadow claw and bringing down his psychic sword on the Sneasel. Elly, however, had other plans, and blocked the blade with one of her own, and as Jake recovered and Adam tried to cut Elly's head off with a shadow claw, the ice type parried him instead, swatting his hand away with his claw and then drove his right claws into his belly, his claws burying into his flesh.

The pain Adam felt was excruciating, having his stomach and internal organs ripped and pierced through by the Sneasel's **extremely** cold claws, who looking at him with a slight smirk of satisfaction, whilst feeling as if the cold itself was spreading across his body as he coughed up blood… but he wouldn't die right then and there. With a howl he unleashed a heavy wave of psychic energy, throwing both Elly and Jake away, both of them landing on their backs, yet struggling to get back up because of their exhaustion, whilst Nox, Lucy and Zed ran in to try and finish the job. Grabbing his lower belly with his left hand he once again summoned a psychic blade and defended himself against their strikes, but was overpowered and felt his psychic blade break underneath Zed's Cranidos' head, the transformed dark type slamming him away into Nox's searing flames, forcing Adam to teleport away, Lucy changing her direction and running in from behind to deliver a finishing blow, throwing him away and into the water.

The Mewtwo slammed against the shallow end of the beach, water flying everywhere as his own dark red blood mixed in with the salty water. He forced himself to turn on his stomach and tried to stand up, falling to his knees as the salt in the water in his wound made the pain even worse. He looked up to face the rest of the Team Star members, and his eyes widened to see that they were all still standing and ready to fight. They looked slightly hurt and somewhat tired, but they could all keep fighting for quite some time.

With that sight, Adam lost his will to fight, smirking as he looked down, grabbing his stomach and chuckled. "Alright… I give up, you win." He simply announced, using some of his remaining power to heal that particular wound, where he feared he could bleed out. He couldn't heal it properly, but at least he stopped the bleeding and the damage to his organs. He looked up at Team Star. "You're… too much for me." He continued, attempting to get up and face them, but fell down to his knees again.

The display was slightly pathetic, yet he had admitted defeat, and they could see why, with Eric taking the word, slightly limping with his left leg. "We warned you, Adam… You couldn't defeat us with your filthy tricks." The Riolu was referring to the Mewtwo's previous tactic of mind controlling innocents, the psychic legendary shaking his head,

"I guess so… But, you won, even with that… you lot…" He looks up, smiling. "You're just what we need right now… to kill those humans." His words confused everyone greatly, but Elly had had about enough from Adam, summoning a psychic blade and pointing it at his neck.

"Explain! What reason did you have to try and kill our friends or beat us to become your slaves?!" She inquired, the Mewtwo knowing that there wasn't any room for joking or drawing out the conversation… and thus, he decided to go straight to the point.

"You heard Dante… this world and humanity have its days counted. Dailos has decided that it's time for some… spring cleaning, and plans to wipe out humanity from the face of the planet… just like he did with the Yorlin." He begins talking, and nobody says anything, expecting the Mewtwo to explain himself better… or not. "Your two friends, the former humans… they're the key to beating him." He said, the Eevee's eyes widening.

"Dark and Natalie? What do you mean they're the key to beating 'him'? And who is this almighty creature that wants to destroy everything?!" She asked, but Adam shook his head and looked up at her, his eyes transmitting a simple yet blood chilling message: I would rather die than say why or who. However, the fact that she had said those two names shocked everyone else to the core, but before they could ask her what she meant, Adam coughed up blood as he tried to talk again.

"You come… from another world… just like they do… But unlike them, you don't know what terrible and horrible things humans are capable of… but you'll see… eventually, you'll see that we're right." It wasn't a threat… but a warning. "Heh… for being legendaries we're plain out useless if we can't even band together and try to do something… See, there's a group of legendaries that sided with Dailos, some that stayed neutral, and some that went against him… this last group searched high and low for someone pure enough to defeat our master… and they found that human. Shame he turned into a Zoroark… and that he wasn't as pure as they thought him to be… alas, what's done is done." He chuckled, coughing up blood again. "But as I was saying… it's none of your business, but I can tell you, that if you were to fight Dailos, all of you together… you could potentially win." He concluded, getting back up, Elly backing away, the Mewtwo taking a breath. "That's why I wanted to take control of you, so you wouldn't interfere, and…" He coughed a little, stopping himself mid talk.

Jake, who was standing back with his arms crossed, nodded and finished for him. "Hence why Dante struck so suddenly… if Dark and Natalie are essential to bringing down this Dailos, killing them whilst they were weak would ensure victory… Yet a question remains; if you truly believe in this Dailos to be your master… why are you telling us this?" The Sneasel's question goes unanswered for some time, and Elly once again brings her blade to his neck… yet the Mewtwo doesn't answer, and looks up at the Eevee defiantly.

"You wouldn't dare kill another living being… no matter how despicable they are." He simply stated, and Elly's face drained of all colour, her psychic blade vanishing, the Mewtwo emerging victorious from that exchange, absolutely everyone who knew Elly understanding **exactly** who he was referring to. "However… I am a pokémon of my word." He raises a hand and snaps his fingers. "I have released all of the mind controlled pokémon in this forest… and I shall give you all another small parting gift." He snapped his finger again and teleported the whole team and himself to where Ren and the Kaiser were, surprising the hell out of them all. Dust lifted his head and ears at the sound of someone close and started quickly sniffing his surroundings, until he recognized the scents. He would have relaxed, if not for the scent of fresh blood, that there was one scent he didn't recognise and the fact that there was still another one missing and it was irking him the most in the inside, while the rest of the family got ready on guard as well.

After a few moments, a water sphere appeared and held Adam tightly. Leopold then landed, looking at the Mewtwo with a death glare, while Manaphy was on his back, with her eyes glowing as she had an arm extended towards the water, making it hold the psychic type.

"This is how low you can step, Adam?" Leo asked. "Controlling others to do your shit. We all agreed we've **never** do that! How many minds you think you've broken with this!?" The Lugia was clearly ticked off, as Adam had clearly broke a vow all of them, psychic Legendaries, did.

"Unlike some idiotic legendaries… none, I know how to control a mind, old friend… or I think I'm not entitled to say that anymore?" He glares at Leopold with a smirk, as if taunting him, the Lugia shooting him a deadly glare, confirming the Mewtwo's suspicions. "Bah, my mind's made up anyways: I'll help Dailos, so you can tell and shout it out to the four winds… spread the word, y'know?" He recommends, which surprises Leopold… but more so Kaylani, who is baffled.

"Adam… What have you become?" She asked, concern in her voice, yet he looks at her with that smile.

"What I had to… in order to join Dailos… I'm telling you, it's over for you… " He glares at them, then at Dark and Natalie. "And for those two as well. Dante knows where you are, and once he knows that… you're toast. In other words: Come to the dark side… we have cookies." He smirked at his own words, having seen that one on a shirt somewhere before.

"And about your friends, Adam? What would Alex think if she saw you like… like… like this!?" She exclaimed. There was a sudden spark in the Mewtwo's body, and he involuntarily shifted, as if trying to get up, which scared everyone and got ready to fight. The Mewtwo, however, groaned and shook his head, yet didn't verbally answer that last question.

"I can't waste anymore time here… I have yet another gift to give you all… I'm just the type of gift that just keeps on giving, y'know? So good luck… because you're going to need it." And with that, the Mewtwo stood up, rose his arm and snapped his finger, teleporting and vanishing away, as Kaylani's water hold crashed down on the floor.

Once Adam was gone, he left behind a tense silence. No one said anything for a moment for different reasons, until Dust rose his voice. "Well fuck the fucker. He's gone now." He said out loud, sounding nervous as his nose went slightly wild as he still searched for what was a miss.

"Hmf… Agreed." Hadrim said. "In the state he was I highly doubt he'll attack us again anytime soon. We should be gone by that time." The Espeon said.

"I second that." Certain orange furred Jolteon said, his voice familiar to everyone that had missed what had happened. The members of Team Star were confused at first, and then they all flocked the new Jolteon, asking what had happened, why did he look like that and many, many more questions, and even a challenge for a race from Lucy.

"Let me stop you all one second." Dust interrupted, now clearly trembling with worry. "Team Star… Or anyone that knows... **Where the fuck is Emily**?" He asked them, distressed and just needing to ask someone. The Shiny Riolu hadn't seen the little pervy Eevee since the start of the fight at the temple, and now that everything was calm, he was shaken for not even getting her scent.

The entirety of the Kaiser fell silent. They had not paid attention to the Eevee in all this mess and none of them had an answer. Leopold and Kaylani held a not good answer as when they counted their children there wasn't any Eevee with them. The silence only made Dust start to freak out and pace around, kicking pebbles and mud.

"Last time… I think I told her to hide inside the temple, like… behind a pillar, or something, I was too busy fighting to look at where she went, but I know she hid somewhere in there." Serge explained, spreading his wings and about to take off… but he howled out in pain and withdrew his left wing, making everyone look at him, extremely worried. Shade went to him in a haste.

"Let me check." She asked to the avian, wanting to check the wound to see if she could do anything to help. She wasn't sure the point her wish healing properties would work, but she could try, after all it had never hurt anyone. So, once she got a look at it, the shiny Eevee placed a paw gently on Serge's shoulder as to not upset the wound and made a wish for him. In a few seconds she'll know if she can heal bones or just close up wounds. Serge's pain didn't decrease, if anything, Shade made it slightly worse by placing her paw there.

Jake walked up and examined it, touching it in certain spots and making the Pidgeot shout, before finally reaching a conclusion. "I believe your wing is broken." He concluded, making everyone sigh.

" **Really**!? What tipped you off, **genius**!?" Shade was the first to say it. "Sorry. It seems like my Wish can't heal broken bones." She apologized to Serge, stepping back, and the bird laughed, saying that she had taken the words right out of his mouth. Jake was about to explain that he had wanted to identify which spots of the wing were broken… but decided to stay silent.

Meanwhile, Dust was still walking to and fro. Worried but trying to calm down. " _Relax, Dust. She's fine. She's safe. We just have to go there and get her._ " He thought, trying to calm his breathing by breathing deep, but it only made his shaky breath even more notorious. The Riolu kept on walking, even when they started to go back towards the temple, making some of the others nervous, while at the same time chanting in his head that Emily was okay.

Eventually, they reached the temple, which wasn't in a really good shape, but didn't show signs that it was about to give out and fall apart… It needed some patching up, though, that was certain. They went in and looked around, giving the Riolu ample room to go look for Emily whilst they treated some of the wounded. Eric seemed to have hurt his right leg, albeit he hadn't twisted it or anything, it was just sore. Elly had a massive headache, Zed and Lucy both felt beaten up in some places, same with Jake and Nox, and finally Serge had broken his wing. Adam had been a challenging foe, much more than Dante, and Jake was theorizing that he could very well be one of the strongest legendaries out there.

Most of the Kaiser Pokémon were more or less fine. Their wounds had been scratches and cuts that were taken care of on the spot. However, they were tired. Dark and Natalie were the most fresh of the group, and to the Zoroark this was worst than the hit he got in the first place. He rubbed his belly where he previously had some cuts from one attack from Dante, now gone thanks to Shade. He looked at everyone, and felt like garbage. True he was glad they protected them, but the only thing he did was run like a coward. " _Never again._ " He swore.

While everyone was resting, Dust didn't lose time and walked into the temple, no matter that he couldn't see shit. His aura stick helping him avoid obstacles and his nose and ears guiding him through the hallways as he looked for the last of the group. He wasn't the only one looking, since Dark and Nat could do something for once that day and went with him. Ears and noses alert in case they caught any scent or noise. Dust called for Emily as well while trying to find her scent, the echo travelling down the empty hallways. He had caught her scent trail and was following it, ears perked up in case he heard her.

Eventually, she did hear him, and she poked her head out from behind a stone pillar, where she had been hiding for the last few hours. As soon as she saw the Riolu, she cried out his name and rushed to his arms. Hearing her, Dust's ears faced her and then he did, not expecting her to be so quick he fell on his butt when she jumped at him, but hugged her nonetheless. "Here you are! Are you okay?" He asked, feeling with his paws a bit searching for possible injuries but he found none, and hugged her tighter, feeling relieved, Emily returning the hug and nuzzling him.

"There you are!" Now it was Natalie who said it as she came running since she heard Emily's yelling, Dark appearing not much later and sighing, along with Nox who watched the scene with open wide eyes… He was happy to see them like that, but it still hurt him that she had ended up choosing Dust over him.

"The others are waiting outside. And Emily seems to be fine. We better go now." The Zoroark said.

"Yeah. I just want to get back home and let myself faint on our puk bed." Natalie said, stretching herself, to which her brother let out a chuckle.

"True, this was stressful… but Nat, I doubt we have any right to complain here." He pointed out and made the Eevee lower her ears. "Come on, what's done is done, we just can improve and be able to hold our ground." He said to her, trying to cheer her up.

"Dark… when you're down you stink at cheering others up… Almost as much as Jake." Natalie said, more joking than serious, but it was true.

Once back outside, Luna, Shade and Elly went to Emily to see if she was okay, which she was. And as they had have time to rest some, Hadrim asked if starting the trip back towards town was okay with them so Serge could be treated.

"Yes, I'm going to need some bandages… It didn't seem to be too bad, but I want to do it in calm conditions, so that I don't make any mistakes." Zed explained the Pidgeot, who nodded and accepted all of his conditions. Anything to get his ability to fly back and properly too.

"You wouldn't let a nurse at a Pokémon center do the job, huh?" Radius asked the Zorua, who looked at him confused, but then Serge butt in.

"I'd rather have someone who has treated me before than some human who I have never met in my life and doesn't know me either!" He exclaimed, clearly against the idea of going to a pokémon center.

"Heh. Now you are like a puppy on their first visit." The Jolteon chuckled. "Fine have it your way." He said and left it there.

Leopold approached the group after a bit. "I have to say. I am impressed how you all were able to handle yourselves. We were worried you might end up much worse, honestly." The Lugia said to Hadrim and Luca.

"I'll be honest. We have Team Star and Ren to thank for that. We might been able to take down Dante alone, but with Adam added…" The Lucario said looking at the ones she had named.

"It's nothing, really. It's the least we can do in exchange for your generosity so far, Luca. Still, I feel there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered… Leopold, Kaylani, does the name Dailos ring any bells?" Eric asked, checking if they knew who it was or not.

The Manaphy looked at him for that question. "Dailos Arceus. Life giver and major God of this planet. And personally, he's gone mad again." She answered his question, shaking her head in the end. "He usually just punish humans for this behaviour they are getting into. Turning a whole investigation body into pokémon and wiping their memories, only few surviving in their new lives. Plain out making one of us cause a catastrophe to destroy all the investigation but whether humans died or not it was because of their own abilities, he never directly killed anyone. That's why I think he's gone mad with this… humanity extinction thing." She says.

"It is true that they had grown greedy and want to harness our powers for themselves. But as I said to Dante: extinction sentence is too much for it." Ren said, showing that she shared that thought but not the way of dealing with the issue. Nobody said anything, but instead looked at Eric, who had a grave look on his face. If that was the case… it was going to be a massacre. Arceus… of all pokémon...

The Manaphy attempted to change the subject. "So. I get now that your little swapping issue is fixed you are going to go back home?" She asked.

"Yeah. Some of us could use a bit of rest after this… little adventure." Hadrim answered.

"Those two…" Leopold said, looking at Dark and Natalie. "They'll need much more than what they've shown if they want to survive to the others." He commented, getting a look from the others there. Hadrim had that clear too. If what Dante had said was true, this won't be the last they'll see of the Legendaries.

"We'll take care of that." Luca said to this. "But first we better go home, make sure everything back is fine and rest a bit. Then we can start training." She added.

"Yeah… and it's going to be some seriously intense training, I might add… no more joking around." Eric said out loud, his tone of voice telling them that he was dead serious this time around.

"I could take you to the town, or even to your home, if you want." Leopold said. "This island is used to see me around during this time." He chuckles. "And it's actually fun to see their faces when they do." He added.

"Thank you, Leopold, but we can handle. Besides… Luca here doesn't like heights and that Shinx over there, Lucy, is not very found of water." Hadrim answered. "That and... we are from Kirol." the Espeon added.

"I see…" Leopold said, looking at the both named with a gleam in his eyes that made Kaylani giggle.

"Don't get ideas, dear. Any of this females could give you a hard round if you where to tease them… Besides, then you'll have to face me." She said and the big psychic Legendary shuddered from head to tail for that, her tone making sure to tell him that if he did that he was in for some trouble.

Elly, however, was actually caught off guard by this. "Wow… not even legendary pokémon are safe from us, are they?" She asked the Manaphy.

"Oh dear… I don't actually know if he's fearing what you'll do to him or what he'll have to face with me later." The Manaphy said, licking her lips, looking at her mate with a look that dared him to do what he wanted to do, yet he stood still, not daring to look back at her.

"You know? I think I'll go get some more fish. Shame it's not gonna be cooked this time." And with that he flew up and towards the sea, leaving his mate in a giggling fit, as well as triggering laughter from every single female with a mate, and making said mates either sigh or look around nervously.

Dark had heard that part of the conversation, yet he looked at them all. "I don't get it." He said mostly to himself.

"Maybe it's better that way?" Radius offered, both of them shrugging at it.

"Better that way." Serge sentenced.

"Well guys! And Ladies… Shall we get going?" Dust asked out loud to them all. Everyone nodded, said goodbye and sorry once more to the two legendaries, and walked away with a promise to come back to visit every so often after Serge's wing had healed.

Jake, however, still had a question. "Hold on.. I just came to a shocking realization…" He turned around and looked at the pair of legendaries, which were heading back into the temple. "How… wait… Impossible!" He kept exclaiming, yet nobody understood what he meant.

"What are you on about?" Nox asked, clearly amused by the Sneasel's freakout.

"They have offspring… a female of that petite size and a male so large… How?!" He asked, and absolutely everyone fell silent… only for laughter to break out of everyone's mouths, especially Nox and Serge.

Even the Kaiser pokémon were laughing at his shock, mostly because he looked funny. "Well… a little piece of information for you, and for free." Dust started without looking at the Ice type. "Wailord and Skitty can mate and have offspring." The Shiny Riolu said to him, still laughing a bit. "So those two being able to do it is not that surprising." He ended, laughing afterwards a bit more. That information didn't help Jake though, and instead confused him even further.

* * *

 **Eric566: Alright, explanation time… We're sorry for taking an entire month to TRANSLATE half of a chapter we had already written in English, and yet since we want to release them simultaneously in both languages… yeah, you can guess what happened afterwards.**

 **Rayrudan: uhgh… yeah mostly my fault I got excited for coming back to a game I love… and neglected this a lot. I'm sorry really and i'll try to get more into the chapters, I love this fic and it would destroy me for it to be left because of me… hell! It was me who suggested this cross! -sigh- well…**

 **Eric566: We're both at fault though, because while he was playing games, I was studying for my exams, so I didn't have much time to do anyhting either… but eh, I passed all of my exams with flying colors, so it's all good!**

 **Rayrudan: well good for you bro, I still got to get into the raid roster in my game so heh, well someone's doing great. is till don't have much exams planned ahead so for now I still SHOULD have time to split between this two things I love do dearly! See you all on the next one, hopefully sooner than this hehe! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Also, Eric gimme one!**

 **Eric566: Banana…**


	12. Chapter 11 - The Pursuer

**Eric: Whelp, this took a tad longer than expected… but we did it, ladies and gentlemen!**

 **Ray: And it's done in less time that last one. That's nice I'd say, right?**

 **Eric: Before we start though, we must address the reviews you wonderful people left in the last chapter, which would be: WesternFail and AveragePichu!**

 **Ray: Average you gave me an idea too late because would could've have one other legendary take Emily away… ok no xD first of all they would try to boast about it and threaten but Team Star would easily knock it out, they almost weren't breaking a sweat with Adam so… yeah you get the pic hehe. And Nymphe?... oh I remember… ARE YOU CRAZY!? Do you want to outright kill my guys or what? There wasn't any way that… nymphe wasn't able to attack everyone at the same time! Please NO. NEVER EVER do you put my characters through that, ok Eric?**

 **Eric: Yeah, Nymphe… hahaha… yeah, because she would've been able to survive disintegration.**

 **Ray: sheeuf… that's a relief.**

 **Eric: And here we go, West... Or rather, Alger? I are confused, but whatever… Yeah, Bananas are good, West, they give you tons of potasium, and are great for pranking everyone and giving not-so-subtle innuendos! You should try it next time you hang out with straight friends! Makes for tons of fun AND awkward stares.**

 **I don't think Adam's purposes are going to be explained any time soon… But you'll see how it progresses. And yes, humans are dumb, Alger, we know, stop rubbing it in our faces before I get your "mom" on the phone again. And then we'll see who's going extinct! Checkmate!**

 **Ray: Yeah… count me out of that sack… I'm a Yorlin! *joke* Going back to the review… It was a surprise for Radius too. Well, for everyone really, since no one expected him to be able to evolve after the stones stopped working on him, but yeah sometimes an Eevee needs more than what an evolutionary stone can give them.**

 **This doesn't mean that evolving into any of the other species of Eeveelution is any easier, tho since they need to be ready for the evolution and then trigger it somehow. All evolutionary stone can push an evolution forwards of course, but sometimes, in my world of course, there are this… special cases that need the stone to trigger and then the raw elemental energy to push it, this cases are extremely rare, more than crossing paths with a shiny pokémon.**

 **Regarding the second part: things will come in due time don't try to rush them or next chapter will last 2 months on coming out… ok no. but yeah everything will come at some point and i won't say more. Why Dark and Natalie? Well why Natalie is easy: she was dragged along. Why Dark… well that explanation will hopefully come before this ends hehe. Just one more thing: Ren is female!**

 **Uh… And I better leave you to enjoy the chapter now before I use more space for answering this review hehe sorry Eric. Guys! we hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 **Eric: :/**

 **Just… enjoy.**

 **Chapter 11**

 **The Pursuer**

Dante rushed through the forest, panting heavily, the mist around him getting thinner and thinner, thus rendering him more vulnerable to the pair of eyes that were undoubtedly watching him under the thin sunbeams that filtered through the treetops around him. He had sworn to Ren he'd never sell any of them out, even though he had been humiliated and defeated… and yet, it was only a matter of time before Dailos found him: He couldn't join their side, because he had already picked his, and what was done was done, and trying to leave this war altogether… Dailos would never allow such treason. His days were counted, and as such, so were those humans'.

"Perhaps it's all for the better…" He tried to convince himself. He hadn't just joined Dailos' side without reason or thinking about it: He did hate humans for how badly they treated the environment, polluting his rivers without a care, destroying forests and ecosystems and building roads in the name of progress… And yet, he now thought that extinction was perhaps a punishment too severe for them. Not only that, but the separation that Dailos' declaration had made among the legendaries… he doubted those wounds would heal any time soon.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a light hearted chuckle right besides him. "What? Having second thoughts or something?" The legendary beast turned around to find himself face to face with Adam, who was barely standing up against a tree, but still with that cocky smile on his face.

"Adam… when did you get here? How come you…" He didn't quite know how to put it without resorting to insults and swears: this psychic deserved, many, if not all.

He however, wasn't fazed, and instead followed his train of thought. "Yeah yeah yeah, I look like shit, all thanks to those "Team Star" blokes… you don't look as fresh as a rose either, but…" He trailed off a little bit, smiling. "It does make my job a hell of a lot easier." His words made Dante slowly stand up, his eyes sticking to Adam, not taking his eyes off of the legendary for a second.

"Wh- what do you mean?" Dante asked, getting an extremely bad feeling from all of this.

Adam smiles. "Oh, do I have to spell it out? Ok then: I-a-m-h-e-r-e-t-o-g-e-t-r-i-d-o-f-y-o-u. And all together now: I am here to get rid of you." He spelled it out at dumbfounding speeds, and with a calm and smile that sent chills down Dante's spine. Just like that, like it was something that could be said in any context.

"What?! Impossible, I haven't…" Adam quickly dashes forward and shuts his mouth with his claw, and then hushes him.

"Now now, that's not the attitude you should be taking… I know you're having second thoughts about following Lord Dailos' orders, and you were planning on running away and hiding, which is stupid by the way." Dante tries to get away from his grasp, but can't, "He'd eventually find you, torture you for betraying him, get the info on those pesky humans aaaand… go to the islands and either wipe them out from existence and personally go around looking for them, two scenarios… that I just won't be satisfied with, y'know?" With these last words, Dante shakes himself free and steps away, enraged.

"Traitor! I should've known that Dailos could never trust the likes of you! You're working for those humans!" His accusations were born out of frustration from his loss and current situation, but also anger towards the psychic legendary, and of course, fear towards their leader: if he managed to turn in this traitor, then maybe **just** maybe, Dailos would forgive his failure. But Adam heard his threats and instead laughed.

"Please, you really think that?" He asks, letting there be a silence between that and his inevitable follow-up answer. "Well, could be, couldn't, everything's up and down left right… You don't really know where I'm gonna be popping out next, but… since you are… well, not going to be here anymore, I guess I can tell you: I want the glory aaaall for myself." He confessed. "I don't intend on sharing the title of being the one who not only found those humans, but also killed them! Dailos won't have to budge an inch, and I'll already have done the deed! I'll get showered in praise… I can only imagine what type of rewards I'll get… or heck, maybe I could ascend in the hierarchy a bit more?" He asks and spreads his arms, smiling and shrugging as he turns around and starts pacing around the trees. "I don't know, I'm tired of being in the middle of the celestial twenty floor sandwich that we've got going on. I'm tired of being the bottom bread…" He placed his hands one above the other, shaking his left, which was the lowest. "And maybe rise up to be the mayonnaise of the group." He moved the hand above the right. "Ya dig?"

Dante was flabbergasted: power? That's all he wanted out of all of this? He didn't care about humans, or pokémon or anything of the sort? Just… power? "You… you scum! Not only do you betray the side you're fighting for, but you also don't care in the slightest about your fellow brothers in arms?! Do you mean to tell me that the past hundreds of years have meant nothing to you?! Not even A-"

"Goodbye." With a sing song voice, Adam interrupted his speech at that precise moment and while looking into Dante's eyes, he snapped his fingers, his own eyes glowing intensely. Dante stopped talking and his maw hung wide open. He rubbed his hands together, then clapped. "Alrighty then… so Dante, when I snap my fingers again, you will forget absolutely everything that has transpired in the last two days: from the moment you found the humans to this little heart to heart we were having, ok? You and I will return to Dailos' side and inform him that the islands are empty: they aren't here. Got it?" Dante didn't do anything at all, completely hypnotized, and eventually Adam walked forward and grabbed the legendary's chin before moving it up and down, forcing the quadruped to nod.

"Good dog!" He pet him affectionately, then rose to his feet and turned around. "Then…" He snapped his fingers, and Dante shook his head. "This trip was a completely waste of our god damn time, y'know? Only got attack by wild pokémon and dumb humans who tried to catch us…" He turned around, placing a hand on his hip whilst moving his other. "Didn't even find a clue on those two idiots!" He shouted, albeit Dante was still shaking himself awake. He snaps his fingers repeatedly. "Hey, you with me? Yah or nay?"

Dante snaps out of his self-induced trance and looks up. "Oh! Yeah yeah, my apologies I… I am experiencing some exhaustion… yes, this trip was an utter waste of time, and the only thing that's come out of this is our own exhaustion." He concluded. Adam smiled to himself, internally glad that the hypnosis worked.

"You said it! Alright, how about we blow this popsicle stand then, and go back to the boss? We can totally get some ice cream on our way there: Humans may be assholes, but they know how to make some killer food and sweets." Adam joked, and the beast rolled his eyes, but couldn't help chuckle… however, this seemingly light hearted moment was interrupted by the sound of a twig snapping, both legendaries turning around to face the source of the noise.

Adam was incredibly surprised by this turn of events, as he hadn't sensed any conscious being's mind in at least 50 meters around them… hence why he had been talking with Dante for so long about his true intentions… but this bastard had just snuck up on them… and probably had heard the whole thing. He swore internally. "Hey, you! Step into the light so we can see you clearly!" The Mewtwo ordered.

The shape didn't move, nor did it answer immediately, but it did eventually move: at incredible speeds and towards them, it's black hood hiding its true identity, two psychic blades ready at each of its arms' ends, and murderous intent in its eyes, yet underneath, the instincts and excitement of a hunter who had found a lead on its prey.

* * *

A child not older than eleven was hiding, looking at the mysterious figure that seemed to be covered by a pitch black cloud. She was scared, and her body betrayed that. However, the figure was looking at something. It was looking at what seemed to be a basketball playfield, however, it looked severed in half and from a point on the ground there wasn't any trace of the field having been there before, no trace of the floor, not holes for the moorings that would hold the other post, and absolutely no trace of the metallic fence that should surround the field. And the strangest thing was, that that place of the town was no place for a basketball field, it wasn't a park or the playground of a school nor the gym of a high school. Hell it was on the middle of the road! The girl had seen it happen, how all of a sudden things flashed and then the emblem of the city was gone, replaced by this.

The creature seemed to be inspecting something on the area. It was the middle of the night but the police had already sent the curious on their way home, the only ones awake where those that had night shift and the child. "Hey! Who are you and what are you doing there? That's not place for civilians. Get out before you get a fine!" A policeman said as others were with him, as well as some police Pokémon. There were a few Growlithe and Arcanine, there was also some Houndoom and Flareon, one Magmar and a Lucario and a Luxray. The Luxray had red fur instead of blue and its piercing eyes were a deep purple, like amethists; the black fur and the star where just like average. Its expression was one of shock as it looked at the figure that turned to look at them. The Lucario wasn't a Shiny, yet it wasn't avarage as well, for starters it wore one actual piece of cloth, being a maroon gabardine on the which it had hooked an inspector badge and what seemed to be an explorer's badge. The Luxray too had this badges, tied to a kerchief around its neck. Aside from the cloth, the fur on the Lucario was black at the body, the blue parts had a much icy sheen to it while the black parts of his fur kept their normal coloration. It's eyes were like two glistening garnets.

The creature looked at them all, the humans where the once threatening, the police Pokémon kept calmly looking at it. The figure rose an arm to a side and, out of a black mist, a scythe appeared, that it swung and pose to its left in perfect view of everyone. The weapon had nothing special, just a pitch black metallic pole adorned with runes and carvings, and the blade, pale as the moon, all of it, clean and sharp looking. The hiding child, as well as the whole police body in front of the figure grew wide eyed as fear settled on them for whom they were seeing. A moment after, everyone was on the floor, unconscious but not dead, nor harmed. Everyone but the child witnessing the scene. The… creature didn't even move from the spot to do anything, but when everyone went down it dismissed its weapon and then started to walk towards the hiding place of the child, who tried to hide better as to avoid it finding her.

"Do not fret, child." A voice said, it sounded calm, yet raspy and spectral, also masculine. "I will not harm you. You can come out of hiding. I know you have been watching me." He said. The child didn't know what to do, she was scared of the creature, yet, the tone he was using made her feel safe somehow. In the end, she came out, showing herself to the figure. She would've been naked if not for what used to be a blouse covering her body, but it couldn't cover her completely. The creature reached to her with an upper paw, caressing gently the ears, the pads on her hands, and the fur on her arms, finishing by looking at her vulpine ears and getting a glimpse of various tails covering the scared child. Without a word, it touched her clothes, the old fabric ripping at his touch and almost leaving her with nothing to protect her from view. "Please, come with me. I will assist you in anyway that is in my power." He said and turned, starting to walk following the road, only stopping to wait for her and continuing when she did as he asked and was by his side, too scared to do anything more than obey for the moment.

* * *

Dark dodged the Aura sphere just in time to avoid getting blown away by it, but he was still too slow, even for Dust's attacks. The Zoroark had been given barely any time to respond himself and against him, his illusion was useless so he didn't bother trying it. Dark was on the defensive, as Dust kept barreling him with strong attacks, making the dark type either block or try to dodge. Dust tried landing a strong kick on him, but he dodged by feinting around the Riolu, however, before he could try and attack, Dust had turned and landed a hard punch on his face, making Dark turn his head and the Riolu took the opening giving the Zoroark one hell of a Close combat, finishing with a jumping kick that made Dark tumble backwards and curse as he spit a bit of blood.

Dust didn't lose time on keeping up the offensive, Dark feinting him once again to dodge the punch. Dust had made it clear the first time they sparred after the mess with Dante, he wasn't going to hold back on him at all, Dark had to either dodge or block most of the sparrings they had had, at least he had started to be able to land hits on the Shiny Riolu too, if only when he started to tire out and even then he ended getting the worst blow from the exchange those times. This time he tried hitting with a shadow claw that Dust blocked with a Bone rush, putting the emerald bone in between them, silver eyes fixed on bicolored blue ones. They both struggled for a bit before Dust pushed Dark back and hastily swung his bone, hitting Dark on the side, following by pushing the bone forwards, hitting the Zoroark's chest and pushing him back. Dark tried to recover but he ended with another hit, a kick to the face, that threw him to the ground. The dark type tried to stand up fast, but Dust didn't let him any room and kept attacking.

Dark's frustration grew for not being able to do any more than blocking or dodging the whole time, and it reached a point that made him growl. He received a hit, but took the proximity to hit Dust with force with an open Shadow claw that made Dust lose his balance and open for Dark to land a few hits, pouring not only his frustration on each hit, but all he has, managing to keep the other in check for a few hits, until he went to finish with an uppercut, that the Riolu blocked with his own paws, before flipping the Zoroark over him and slamming him down on his back. Dark endured the hit while holding one of Dust's paws, pulling the Riolu to him and giving him a punch on the stomach, adding electricity to his paw to shock Dust a bit before throwing him away as he stood up, slamming him back first head down against a tree trunk. Dust didn't flinch for it and quickly sent an sphere of aura towards Dark, who was too slow this time to dodge, so he tried to parry instead, sending the green sphere skywards, ending panting slightly but his arms still responded to him. The two of them rose and got ready to keep on, even with their state. None were holding back, no matter the wounds nor the pain.

Meanwhile, however, they were being watched intently by another Riolu, who was standing in the sidelines and taking in every small detail and movement that they did… and he couldn't be anymore disappointed in what he was looking at. "Alright, alright, stop! I've seen enough!" He exclaimed, the tone of his voice clearly showing that he didn't exactly have good news for the two of them.

Hearing him, Dust and Dark looked at Eric, both dropping their stance. As always they had gone a good distance from the household for this kind of training, as to avoid blowing up a wall from it. Only this time the blue Riolu decided to stick along.

Once they were both in front of him, he sighed. "Alright, all around, you know how to handle yourselves, you know how to throw a punch, when to dodge, and when to not attack… but good grief, after that you two just fall apart so quickly! First of all, both of you have projectiles, which you were using during the first few minutes but after that, "Poof!" vanished without a trace, instead of using them to create a distance between you and your opponent to give you thinking time. Not only that, but you resorted to tanking hits, both of you, but mostly Dark, which questionably works against blunt objects… but with if it was Elly using her psychic blades you'd probably be bleeding all over the grass. Not only that, but I barely saw anything from your feet that didn't involved jumping or running away. You have feet: use them to throw your opponent off-guard: kicking and hitting them with your knee can easily grant you an opening to attack." He said all of this whilst looking at the two of them, albeit there were far more flaws that he had to point out.

"Dark, you were facing an opponent that was inherently smaller than you, and thus nimbler. You have to be extra careful, because foes that are quicker than you can easily outpace you, even if they don't strike as hard, they don't need to: hit you in the neck or the chest just right and you'll be gasping for breath or unconscious, or in the worse cases, with your head chopped clean off." He made the decapitation gesture as he said this. "Next time, make sure that you keep your distance with him whenever he starts rushing you down, and don't lose your temper: I saw you getting angrier and angrier with every hit you blocked. Patience is a virtue, especially in fighting. Dust is smaller, so he must attack quicker in order to have a chance at victory, since you're stronger and tougher all around. You can outlast him if he's continuously striking at a strong defense, and the moment he slips counter attack with your brute strength to finish the fight in a single move. Understood?" He stares at Dark inquiringly, since out of the two of them, he was the more inexperienced one.

The Zoroark stood thinking about it, his head low as he pondered what he had been told. True tanking a hit is only useful on occasions, true he lost it there to be able to land some hits. He needed to keep calm and know when it's sure to tank a blow in order to hit hard, lest he wants is to get any part of him severed.

"And as for you, Dust… I could see traces of your training, you did know what you were doing, giving you quite an upper paw… but your style lacks any type of continuity: You adapt to your opponent's fighting style and try to turn the tables on them, which eventually works, but you have a difficult time keeping that superiority for any period of time that allows you to land some decisive hits. In a sense, you're sort of fishing for cheap shots and blind spots, which is a viable strategy if you can keep it up long enough to wear your foe down, but every time you got the upper hand Dark countered you brutally: You left yourself open because you thought the fight was yours, but remember that he can take some punishment too, and you're way smaller, so anything you deliver to him will hurt, but anything he hits you with will hurt even more. You can either fully dedicate yourself to a hit-and-run strategy, where you manage to exploit a weakness, go in for a hard hit, and then back away to safety, or keep up consistency by landing weaker blows to throw your opponent off-guard and wait for a decisive mistake which can net you a victory, but even then, back down if you feel like it is a trap or they might get up after it. Understood?" Dust was far more experienced than Dark, that he could easily tell, but he was inconsistent: he tried to do everything at the same time, and he lacked the skill to do so, and got caught in a bind whenever he wanted to keep going or back away simply because it was too late.

"Right!" Dust answered, giving a pose to Eric, not for fun, but more like rooted on him from his previous training. His tone was serious, though. Even with the pose of the an arm over his chest and the fist hitting the other shoulder once before dropping it while going firm.

Eric rolls his eyes. "Good grief… I guess I should just show you how to do it then." He says, and then turns away from them and raises his right paw, summoning his light staff. The light was weaker than usual, meaning that the strength was in fact lesser than when he had used it against Adam… but it would still do nicely. He turned around to face them. "Well?" He taunted.

"This isn't going be pretty." The one who talked was Shade, who was there knowing how the other males ended every time they trained, being there to at least heal the bleeding and what more she could. So much practice had made her be able to make wishes almost instantly, even if it still took its time on taking effect.

"You bet it's not… they're probably going to be sore for the next few days… Emily and Luca are gonna have his head though." Elly said, referring to her mate with that last comment.

"If he goes too far, please give him a good hard scolding for me, ok?" Natalie asked the bigger Eevee. Elly dismissed her worries by laughing though, telling her that he knew how hard he had to go on them.

Meanwhile, Dark's eyes went wide open. He could barely handle Dust, but Eric? Now that was a throwing a greenhorn into a championship match. Even then, the Zoroark tried to calm down. Dust was excited as well for this opportunity, he'd wanted to spar with the other Riolu for a time and he wanted to start. As soon as Dark calmed down enough to think clear, he got ready to fight, Dust summoning his own aura bone for this.

The Shiny Riolu started first, summoning an aura sphere and throwing it to the ground as fast as he could, the explosion not being very impressive but enough to rise up a cloud of dust that he tried to use as cover, even knowing that Eric could see him either way if he used his aura sight. Dust ran through the cloud and swung his bone against the other Riolu. Dark went with a dark pulse. The beam of purple rings going straight towards Eric. ' _Damn… Maybe earlier I might have won… now it's gonna be impossible._ ' The Zoroark thought.

Eric smirked at the cloud of dust, but it was basically useless: He didn't have to use his aura sight, because both the staff and the dark pulse glowed and were visible easily. Dust had started strong with a melee approach, but that left him wide open when Eric ducked towards him, avoiding the dark pulse and under the staff, facing the Riolu straight ahead, keeping his feet moving and readying himself for a follow-up backswing.

Dust used his own bone to jump up, throwing another aura sphere as Dark took a moment to look at this, trying to think quick, waiting for an opportunity before sending a shadow ball followed by an aura sphere of his own towards the clearly more experienced Riolu, running at him afterwards on all four paws, having learned this way he could run faster at least during one of his sessions with Dust. The Zoroark approached with the idea of landing a hit with a Shadow claw, his left hand enveloped by a purple energy claw as he swung it at Eric, Dust landed and tried to get close quick enough to put some pressure by attacking with a double flaming kick.

Eric, however, smiled and summoned his light staff and spun around, hitting both projectiles and returning them straight at Dark, and even if he dodged them, just in case he jumped up to avoid Dust's flaming kicks and letting him hit Dark, doing a handstand on his own staff. The Zoroark managed to dodge by little the spheres, but Dust nailed him with the kicks, making the Dark type back up slightly. The Shiny Riolu looked at the Zoroark for a moment but there wasn't time for apologies and faced the other, smiling slightly as he summoned not one but two aura bones as big as his arms, holding one with a reverse grip and the other normally as his legs kept on fire, the green tint of his aura sight clear in his eyes. Dark recovered late from the unexpected kick, he still had to get faster at that, but at least he attacked the moment he saw Eric, throwing a Shadow ball and then launching a Dark pulse behind it, pushing the attack faster as the dark type attack surrounded the ghostly sphere, the attack passing right over Dust position, who ran at Eric right behind the double move.

Eric sighs. "Good grief… talk about being flashy… alright, that's enough." Eric jumps off the staff and goes over the projectiles and straight for Dark, going for an overhead with his aura staff, his arms and legs glowing with aura. Just as he slammed the staff down on the Zoroark, who tried to block the attack with his bare paws, he propelled himself forward, two aura spheres appearing out of nowhere thanks to the precharged arms and fired off almost instantly, a delay of half a second between appearing and firing. Dust seeing this had to run back, as Dark couldn't avoid the projectiles thrown at him and ended lying on the ground with a face of pain and trying to stand up fast, while Dust swung his backwards held aura bone at Eric, following trying to hit with the other on his left hand and then trying to kick, while keeping an eye on the blue furred Riolu in case he had to get away.

Eric, instead of attacking Dust, headed straight for Dark, who was down on the ground and could be finished off easily, then having Dust alone against himself. He ducked under the first bone, turning around and slamming his own aura staff into his legs, knocking him off balance as he tried to hit him with that kick, then jumped up and twirled his weapon so it was aiming downwards, and came down with his staff on top of Dark, all in a single fluid motion that ended with his staff being stabbed into the earth right next to Dark's head. "Dead!" Eric declared, then turned around on a dime to get ready for Dust's counter attack, as Dark was now "technically" dead.

Dark tensed but sighed, he saw this outcome the moment the blue Riolu started this so… why fuss about it? When Eric got off of him, the Zoroark stepped aside as Dust stood up, growling slightly but then huffing and breathing deep while his stance and look where fixed on his opponent, his two aura bones ready on both hands, if he wanted a chance he'll have to try and surprise his actual trainer. At that moment an idea came to mind, he had to be quick and careful in order to not get caught. Dismissing his weapons and extinguishing the fire on his legs, the Shiny Riolu adopted a boxeo style stance, and this time it was him who waited, deciding to be patient this time around.

Meanwhile, Natalie approached her brother. "You okay?" she asked.

"Meh. I knew I didn't stand a chance. Not with Eric." He answered, shrugging as if it was nothing. "I might be able to at least hit Dust. But there's no way I can even grace Eric's fur with any attack I might throw." He finished.

Eric looks at Dust, amused. "Are you sure you're not biting off more you can chew?" He taunted any looked at Elly, who rolled her eyes and smiled, thinking that the taunting was a bit ridiculous and excessive.

"Maybe. How can I improve if I don't push past my limits?" the Shiny replied.

Eric smirked, dismissing the staff… but he didn't approach, and instead threw two aura spheres, both of them to the other Riolu's sides. Dust saw the spheres coming, deciding to jump back to get away of the landing area and kept the stance and waiting for a moment, starting to approach after a bit before running in with the only intention to approach, yet he tried to seem like he was going to try and attack.

Eric's arms started glowing again, and he resummoned his light staff, then charged in, but didn't have any intention to attack, but block, because he knew the Riolu had something up his sleeves, but he was already two steps ahead of him. Dust didn't attack but he did jump back a bit to get some distance between them upon seeing the staff. The golden jackal had his aura running through all his limbs, aside from his double sight.

He decided to risk it then, running in to hit but no Eric but to hit the staff with a kick in an attempt to open his defense. Eric backed away, and surprisingly dismissed the staff, then ran in again. "Alright, you want a fist fight, you got it!" He shouted. Dust didn't answered this, he just ran in and this time tried to land a punch on Eric, following quickly after the first punch with another that also let loose a wave of aura forwards.

However, Eric had lied about giving him a fair fist fight, stopping and stepping back just a little bit, before the light staff suddenly reappeared with a flash and stepped forward again quickly, slamming his staff into the energy and returning it to sender, to then block an incoming blow with it. Dust was forced to dodge his own attack, rolling under it and then raising fast and jumping, trying to kick the staff out of the other's paws to then swing down his own as he fell over the other. "I've never asked for one." The golden said.

Eric blocked it successfully, leaving the two in a struggle, but Eric was smirking. "And you had me so proud of you for a second there… shame." He simply announced, then released the energy in his arms into his staff, which suddenly flew straight up into the air, leaving him without a weapon, but since he was struggling against the Riolu, it threw him backwards and off balance, leaving him completely defenseless. Without skipping a beat, he rushed in and began kicking the Riolu repeatedly at high speeds, before growling loudly and delivering one last kick, sending the aura inside his leg straight into the fellow Riolu and launching him away. And as Dust touched the ground, Eric's staff came back down to the ground, the Riolu picking it up in midair and twirling it around before dismissing it. "You're done. If this was a real fight, I could've easily knocked you out with that attack."

Dust groaned, landing on the floor, his eyes closed as he tried to stand but fell back down. Sighing, the Shiny Riolu admitted defeat. "Then I suppose I'm lucky it's not." He said, trying to dismiss it as he tried to sit while panting, trying to recover his breath.

Eric sighed and shrugged. "Yeah… because this is really bad: You didn't even manage to land a single hit on me, which means that we've got a looooong way to go…" The Riolu said, but his face visibly relaxed, becoming his calm usual self. "But training's over for today, so let's pick up our things and head back home." He said, turning around to walk towards the females sitting in the sidelines.

"Well, that was a show…" Elly said with a smile as she got up, looking at Shade. "They've got a long way to go, but I think they'll do very well in time."

The Shiny Eevee was with Dark, making a wish for him, to then go to her brother. "We all have to improve, don't we?" She asked the older as she sat by her brother, putting a wish on him. "Blind again?" She asked.

He only chuckled sheepishly as he stood up, aura stick on paw. "Not for long." He said calmly. "I wonder what's for lunch." He wondered and faced at Dark. "He bro, want to get a beer?" He asked with a smirk, making the Zoroark groan.

"Oh please, don't remind me that." He said. Shade and Natalie let out some giggles as they recalled when they reached the port town on Zalkar to go back to Kirol. They found Captain Will and Leonard inside a bar and Dark went to get them… Only to have his muzzle submerged into a big jar of beer that left the dark type drunk after a bit of being forced to drink it down. His uncontrolled illusions about wales jumping over the ship or a giant sea monster trying to take it down to the depths made for an interesting journey back.

"No, no beer after what happened the last time. For the love of all that is valuable in your lives, don't even consider drinking again, Dark." Whilst Eric was making sure that they got the idea out of their heads, Elly was giggling.

"Aww, come on, it was a whole load of fun… besides, we all knew that those were just his illusions." Elly said giggling.

"Oh yeah, it was definitely fun for all you, who didn't have a furious and scared shitless Shinx crawling up your bodies and making you look like hell." He remembered how Lucy had literally filled him with wounds because Zed was too busy trying to get Dark to calm down and make the illusions go away.

"You don't need to tell me twice, Eric. That trash tastes horrible and it's not worth the headache afterwards." Dark assured the regular Riolu. "Hey, one question. Why did you take Ichiro's candies from him the other day?" He asked to both Eric and Elly as he remembered how the guy offered them some and the Eevee just got the whole bag. True Ichiro got some laughs yeah, but got none of the sugar.

The couple looked at eachother, shared a single sly smile and then looked at Dark. "We cannot disclose this information. Thought if I have to be honest…" Eric pointed at Elly. "She was the one who had the idea." He blamed her, and the Eevee mocked surprise.

"Ooooh, what did you just say, mister I'm-not-getting-cuddles-tonight?" The Eevee asked, now a bit annoyed, but Eric just shrugged, claiming he was just an advocate of truth and justice. "Well, it MAY have been my idea… but he still helped me AND ate some of the candy, and then we..." She continued, and was about to say something else, but Eric rushed in and put a paw over her maw, albeit she could easily move it away, but even then, she kept talking gibberish into his paw, which was impossible to understand, before they both laughed.

"Yeah, well. Even if that was the case **the both of** **you** didn't proposed to share with him when it was his poké what brought it to the house." Now Dark blamed them at the same time. "Talk about a little couple of thieves." He dared to joke.

"Hey, we promised we'd compensate it for him. Remember how Elly and I went to town? We did some odd jobs and… we got some change. We're waiting to get more to give to Ichiro as compensation." Eric spilled the beans on their apology gift to Ichiro, and Elly confirmed this by nodding.

"And here I thought you were going to a hidden place somewhere in the forest." Dust chimed in, making some of them snigger slightly.

"Hey, what's that supposed t- Oh, you little sneaky dirty mother…" Eric began trudging over to him, puffing out his chest and trying to look as big and intimidating as possible, while Elly was giggling, since she already knew it was a joke… because if it wasn't it wouldn't be long before she joined Eric for a proper beatdown.

"You do realize right now I can't see you, right?" Dust chuckled as he could feel the other trying to tower over him while he had his eyes closed for the tiredness.

"What worries me isn't what you can't see now. What worries me is what you could've seen!" Eric accused, now triggering laughter from basically everyone, basically confirming what was basically a well-known secret.

"Whatever. Talking about going out for long. Dark where have you been going these days after lunch? You plain out disappear 'til dinner and I could see you limping last night." Natalie asked.

"I just went to do some things around. And about limping... you must be seeing things." The Zoroark answered to his sister, who just stood looking at him for a moment before she kept walking, not buying that but deciding to not ask anymore.

Eventually, they arrived at the Kaiser household, where they were received by the uncanny sight of Serge lounging and sleeping on the door frame, the Pidgeot cracking an eye open as he heard them approach, raising a wing to greet them. "Yo. Welcome back!" They were all surprised by his appearance.

"When'd you come back, Serge?" Eric asked, since the Pidgeot had decided to leave a few days ago to fly around as soon as his wings were in perfect condition for flying, and see some new sights, as he put it. He had explored the entirety of the islands by now.

"Came back a few hours ago, I was told you guys were out training, so I decided to wait for you guys here… what time is it?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.

"It's almost lunchtime." Shade said as she trotted towards the door. "Welcome back to you too, Serge." She added as she walked past the avian and got ready to jump up to open the door and let every one in.

Serge scoffed. "Sheeesh, Luna gave me a warmer welcome… Which is to be expected, I guess." He flapped his wings and got down, then walked in after the group.

"I'm hungry! You can tell all the stories you want about where you've been when we have a nice plate in front of our eyes, ok?" She said while hurrying to the bathroom.

"Rude! Look, I've been out in the wild for these five days, so I haven't been getting a five star buffet, and you don't hear me complaining!" Serge pointed out, his voice calling the attention of basically everyone in the household.

Dust chuckled. "Someone skipped breakfast I'd say." He laughed slightly as he went into the livingroom. He was able to see a little bit but he decided to keep his eyes closed instead. "So Serge, where you've been, old feathers?" The Shiny asked as he stops leaning on the doorframe while Dark and Natalie also walked in, after telling the Pidgeot that they wanted to hear what he had to tell about his exploration.

"Ok, first of all… old feathers? I'm thirty, mini squirt." He rubs Dust's ears and then walks into the room and makes a beeline for the sofa, laying on his back. "Well, I went back to Zalkar to visit Kaylani and Leopold, stayed there for a day, then continued to visit the other islands! There were some pretty cool sights and places to visit, even went to some huge cities with skyscrapers! Huge towers like a castle's… it was super cool." He keeps telling them about the more noticeable landmarks across the islands.

"For what I'm hearing, someone got quite an exciting experience." Luca commented as her head popped out of the kitchen. "So you wanna eat warm or cold? Today is Zed's turn to cook." She said to him with a smile. "The rest of you, go wash yourselves a bit before coming to eat." She finished, talking more to the two she thought were the only ones that battled during the training.

"I'll take Zed's food either way, it's always delicious." Serge said, walking into the kitchen, and a few seconds later a shout was heard, followed by a panicked Zorua's scream and some heated conversations between the aforementioned two pokémon and a Shinx.

"Sure thing." Dark said to Luca, starting to head towards the bathroom.

"Last one's a Grimer!" Dust challenged as he ran, the Zoroark starting after him.

"Hey! Come here!" He let out as he chased.

"Guys! Ladies first!" Natalie called as she also went with them. Shade had to step aside to dodge the three running Pokémon that went to the bathroom, and then trotted towards the kitchen calmly.

"So Elly, did Dust apologize already for his prank from yesterday?" Luca asked the older Eevee, talking about a certain bucket prank, that worked, but failed the main target.

"Well… it was hilarious… even though Eric didn't think it was funny at all, since we had just come out of the bathroom… so he had to dry himself again." Dust had prepared a bucket of ice cold water for her, but Eric had been the one to get out of the bathroom first, so he was the one who got soaked and then dried himself again.

"Well, keep your eyes open, then. He might try it again and with a stronger prank." She said, knowing her son loved to do some pranks every now and then, even more if he didn't got his target. Elly gave her a look that dared him to try it again… but for now, they just waited around until it was their turn for the bath. They decided to go back to the porch and sat there, talking and whispering quietly.

Jake, who was sitting on the opposite end of the sofa, looked at the two, and his curiosity got the best of him, trying to pry into the conversation… which was interesting, since they weren't talking through telepathy. They seemed to be worried about something, and he caught the words "Dark" and "Humans". Jake connected the dots: they were talking about the fact that Dark and Natalie were humans… or rather how Elly had hidden it from the rest of the team at the request of the human turned Eevee. Nobody was mad at her, specially Eric, who completely understood why she had done it. However, it changed things a lot, and also explained many things, mostly the twin's fighting inexperience.

Meanwhile, Nox was sitting in front of the Tv, watching anime for a change. " **Jooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooojooo!** " He screamed at the top of his lungs in unison with the TV, scaring Jake out of his skin, shutting the book and scowling at the Houndour, and all while Serge ran out of the kitchen and slid across the ground, slamming against the couch where Luna was lying. The shaking of the couch made the Vulpix wake up from a nap she was enjoying a lot after an intense morning. She peered over the ledge of it and looked down at the avian, letting out a growl.

"Damn it you idiot! Go bother someone else! Imbecile." She said to him, her tone of someone that has clearly just woken up from a deep sleep as she turned to go back to her nap, curling and using her tails as a cover.

He looked at her. "Bite my feathery ass!" He responded, not really caring, and then turned to the TV, where the characters were speaking a language that sounded **extremely** similar to his own. "Hold on… What are these guys talking? Japanese?" But the Houndour just responded with a vague "I dunno" and kept watching.

The rest of the day went as it had been going lately. Dark went off after lunch without telling nothing to anyone, Dust spent the afternoon in his room with Emily, only going out to get some snacks and drinks while enjoying a few movies. Natalie and Shade played some chess games while Radius watched from the other side of the room, those brown eyes looking more at Nat than his sister or the game itself.

"That's the look of an interested male." Luna commented from the sofa as she was bored of watching the drama show that Clara was watching on tv and started to look around for some entertainment, Zed watching the tv and Lucy doing the same as Luna, about to start talking to her out of pure boredom.

The comment made Rad look at her. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"Don't play dumb, Radi. I just saw how you look at Nat." She said approaching him, just to tease him more. "You can't take your eyes off of her. You think her fur is shining more than… well something that shines a lot. Admit it, little Jolteon, you like her." She said, and this words made the Jolteon actually blush over his orange fur and he looked aside.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Luna." He said as he turned to look elsewhere.

The Vulpix only giggled more. "Whatever you say, lover boy." She said before going off to try and find something else to do. She might take a nap with Ichiro, her training with Nox that morning had left her really exhausted and she still felt tired, even after having a nap before lunch.

Elly and Jake were waiting for their turn to play chess right besides them, and even though they were overhearing this conversation, they didn't want to say anything about it, since they didn't know what to say about it. Serge and Nox were both talking about the series the latter had been watching, and the Pidgeot had concluded that they were in fact talking Japanese. Eric was sitting on a sofa and relaxing, splitting his attention between the tv and the game of chess.

He glanced at his mate, and started waving his paw, trying to call her attention. It worked, and she rose her eyes and smiled. " _What is it?_ " She asked telepathically.

He shrugged. " _Really bored… Clara won't give the remote to anyone else, and we're stuck watching this soap opera thing… Wanna go do something fun? And by that I mean go take a walk._ " He said, Elly shooting a playful look at him. However, she hadn't sensed any irony or innuendo in his words, so he was being sincere, but she shook her head.

" _I want to play some chess, been itching to play the entire day… But I'll make it up to you later, I promise._ " She said this as soon as she saw his rather sad face.

" _Alright fine… Maybe I'll just try to take a nap then, since I'm apparently taking guard duty tonight…_ " He said, Elly nodding and then ending the conversation, yet that last comment bothered her: he was being… really distant whenever he talked about standing guard during the night since Zalkar. She knew he meant well but… she couldn't help but to start worrying whether or not the whole idea of protecting everyone was starting to get to his head.

Eventually, everyone got tired and some even went to sleep early. Dark had come back by dinner as every day. The Zoroark took a shower but then skipped dinner, saying he wasn't feeling hungry. Everyone could see he was tired, and for once, it was lay down on bed and he fell asleep right away.

Clara decided to check on him, thinking he might be getting ill, but it turned out it was nothing to worry, so she left him alone while he slept, those that hadn't gone to sleep early, got some chatting around the table before calling it a day. Radius talked a bit with Lucy about his own training. "I was wondering if… you could help me a bit. I haven't got the hang of it yet." He said to her, asking her for help.

"Huh? Well… sure, I guess, but I don't think this is like… the best moment to ask for this, Rad… I'm going to bed, I have to stand guard tonight." She said.

"Oh! No, no, no. I meant… if you could help me tomorrow when you can." He said.

"Ah, alright then… we'll talk about it more in depth tomorrow… Good night." She says this and walks into Team Star's room, not happy that she had to deal with guarding duty that night, since she had wanted to spend a quiet night with her sweetheart.

Rad thanked her and went towards Ichiro's room calmly. The doors were closed and everyone went to sleep, with the exception of Elly, who had the first shift.

The hours passed swiftly, and the house was calm, the ambience starting to warm up as summer approached, the night invited to sleep for once. However, there was a pair that was having troubles resting. Dark didn't shift much in bed, mostly because Natalie was scooched against him, but his expression showed he was having a bad dream, and his sister wasn't exactly having the best of them either.

The Zoroark found himself back at home, laying down on the middle of the living room. This confused him and he stood up, looking himself over, he was even back to being human. He didn't have time to think much over what was happening, however, as he found himself in front of a scene that involved two thiefs and his parents. One of them stood watching Dark's parents, trying to make them tell him where they hid their things, as the other kept looking for valuable things. Once they were done, the one looking said so and the one looking at his parents looked at his partner, then the thief looked back at them and aimed to shoot at Dark's father and the man fell down on the floor. Dark's mother went to him and the fucker shoot her too. After this, both the thieves ran away from the house.

Dark woke up with a jump after this. His eyes opened first, and then he bolted out of bed, looking around as he panted, trying to recover his breath. Natalie had woken up too, and she was in very much the same state as him. He looked at her for a moment and tried to calm down his breathing quickly. "Nat? What is it?" He asked her, going back to bed and around her.

"I… I just had a nightmare." She said, scooching closer to him. "About home…" She added, surprising him.

' _Could it be?_ ' He thought as he held her close. "Don't worry, sis. It was just a bad dream." He told her as he petted her gently. Natalie calmed down after a bit, and she fell back asleep on his arms. Dark, however, was not as fine as he wanted her to think. He was still scared, and worried. He needed to relax so he set Natalie down on the bed and went out of the room, the light of the hallway blinding him for a moment as he exited the room and then went into Ichiro's gently, approaching Radius, who was sleeping at the feet of Ichiro's bed, hoping not to wake up the human he shook the Jolteon. "Rad? Hey, I need you to wake up." He whispered to the electric type.

"Dark? It's not even five in the morning. What's the matter?" Rad asked.

"Well… Nat and myself have had a bit of a bad dream and… I can't take it out of my head." He said. "I managed to get her to sleep again but I need to clear my head." He said.

"And you want me to watch over her?" Rad asked.

"Come on, just make her company for a bit. Besides… I know you like her." The Zoroark said, smirking, making the Jolteon blush and look aside.

"Fine! But try not to come back by dinner time, ok?" Rad said, standing but he didn't have time to jump down the bed.

"You two are so noisy I'm surprised Ichiro hasn't woken up." Shade said from her spot by the human's chest. They were about to apologize but she didn't let them talk. "I think it would be better for another female to make Nat company, or you want her to think that Rad is some kind of creeper?" She asked.

Dark stuttered for a bit, out of words. Truth be told he didn't want to wake her up, not because he didn't want her to do it, but because it felt strange to wake up a female that is not his sister to ask for a favour.

In the end the Shiny Eevee got her point across, Rad went back to sleep and she went to watch over Natalie after a little explanation on what was the problem.

Dark closed Ichiro's room gently and then did the same with his, and then looked for whom of Team Star would've be in the shift at that moment of the night.

"I'm just gonna take a walk around." He said calmly as he went to the stairs, but waited there for an answer. It was none other than Lucy, who simply nodded and gave him the green light, looking like she was about to doze off at any second.

The Zoroark thanked her and walked downstairs and went to the kitchen, where he found Luca getting herself some tea. She greeted him with a wave of a paw and he returned it, taking a glass of water.

"What are you doing awake this late?" She asked gently, to pass the time as her water heated up.

"Bad dreams. I need to clear my head." He answered, leaning on the counter while taking a sip of the water, both of them keeping their voices low.

"Wanna talk about it?" She offered. Dark thought about it for a moment, but said it was just a bad dream and that a walk would be enough, not wanting to worry her. "Dark. We might not be related, but if you need someone to listen count on me, ok?" She said, making him look at her for a moment. He showed her a heartfelt smile and finished his glass.

"Right… thanks, Luca. I'll have that in mind." He said to her, to then go out of the house through the back door and into the forest.

Luca made her tea, while thinking on how he had seen the Zoroark. For her he was another son and she could feel his aura. Whatever that dream was had affected him a lot. She took her drink and downed it quickly once it has cooled down a bit. Getting him to tell it was going to be hard, but maybe he'll talk to someone else, someone with whom he had spent a harsh time.

After taking some time to try and calm herself, but not being able to shake the worry out of her mind, the Lucario went to Ichiro's room and decided to wake Radius up. The poor Jolteon groaned to her and tried to keep sleeping, but in the end he woke up, one way or another, and the both of them went down to go after the Zoroark.

Eventually, it started to get darker, and halfway through the night, Lucy couldn't take it, but thankfully Eric stepped out of the room. "So, how are you doing?" He asked her, the Shinx groaning and taking her sweet time to respond.

"I feel horrible… I haven't been able to sleep properly for a couple days…" The Riolu chuckled, taking a blind guess.

"Are you having nightmares about the boat trip?" His toothy smile made Lucy slightly angry, but she was too tired to be properly angry, so she instead chuckled.

"Yeaaah… Seriously, fuck that ship, I don't want to be at sea again… And I don't care if you're going to tell me to watch my mouth, it's just you and me here…" The Riolu rose his paws above his head.

"Don't worry about me, I won't say a thing. Though, if I'm to be honest, I prefer you like this." He said jokingly, the Shinx shooting him a deadly glare before rolling her eyes and walking past him. "Zed's probably sleeping peacefully right now, so you'd better join him. See ya tomorrow." He wished her good night, and she wished him a calm night too, then headed into the room. Just as she was about to close the door though, something in her mind clicked, and she turned around, her sleepiness almost gone, then turned to Eric.

"Oh shit yeah, I almost forgot: Dark came by a few hours ago and told me he was going for a walk in the middle of the night… but he hasn't come back yet." Her words didn't really make Eric happy, but she seemed apologetic for it: she had probably given him permission whilst she was half-asleep and had forgotten about it. Before she tried to apologize he dismissed it with his paw,.

"It's alright, it's not your fault, you were tired, you couldn't think straight. We'll talk about it tomorrow. As long as he's sleeping at the entrance or in the sofa it'll be alright… just, don't worry about it, go to bed and get some rest. It's alright." He repeated, and the Shinx did nod, but she couldn't keep her mind off of it. If something bad happened to Dark… it'd be all her fault. She took these worries with her to the small mattress that she and Zed shared with basically everyone else in the team. It was a small fit, but the thing was pretty comfy, but that night she just kept hearing the creaking sounds of the bed as she turned and turned restlessly. Eventually, her movements ended up waking up Zed, who had a talent when it came to identifying when others were nervous or in distress, especially his mate.

"Lucy? What's wrong?" He asked, worried that something was keeping the electric type up. She turned around to face him and quickly informed him or her rather reckless decision, which in turn worried the Zorua too. "Well… I don't think anything bad will happen to him…" His words were not working towards making her feel calm, and even he could notice the dubitative tone of his voice. "Just… wait here, ok? If Eric doesn't, I'll go check it out." He said.

She immediately sprang up and tried to catch him. "What are you saying?" She shouted in a low whisper. "Stay here, c'mon, I need someone that can help me relax…" She whimpered, but Zed looked down at her lovingly and kissed her forehead.

"Don't worry, I'm just going to go out and check if he's alright, and Eric's probably going to tag along with me… Besides, Dark is a friend too, regardless of who he reminds me of, remember?" He reminded her of how he had accepted Dark's physical appearance, and she knew the importance of that pokémon in his life, even though she had never met him or he had never gone into specifics… but she felt like this was all something far more meaningful for him.

"Zed… please… be honest with me: Are you doing this because you feel you have to… or because you want to?" Her question was ambiguous, but between the two of them there were many implications in those words, and Zed understood them perfectly.

"Both. Now… just wait here, I'll be back in an hour at max." In her eyes, he was looking as manly and noble as he had ever looked, a completely new side of him that sort of scared and surprised both… but excited her to no end, wanting to see more of this "confident" Zed. She shot up and hugged him tightly.

"I love you." She simply said, feeling that she had to tell him those words right then and there, and he returned the affection by hugging her too, patting her back a few times before leaving her side. As always, when she gave him those shows of affection anywhere near or in front of anyone, he started blushing like a Cheri Berry, and this time was no exception, the poor thing looking as if he was about to start glowing in the dark from how red he was getting. His own shyness and embarassment led him, however, to trip of the rather oddly positioned Nox right besides him, and tumble over him and onto Serge, waking the two immediately.

"Awwww fuck…" Nox groaned, looking up and then at Zed. "I can't believe you've done this." He looked at the dark type, not too happy to have been woken up so abruptly, and the Pidgeot also looked at Zed, confused, but just as annoyed as Nox was.

"Oh, sorry sorry… I was going to head out and look for Dark… he's gone for midnight stroll and hasn't come back." His explanation didn't really matter to Nox, but it certainly did send off alarms in Serge's head, who sprung out of bed, making everyone on it bounce slightly, yet somehow not waking up Elly or Jake.

"Crap, I told him not to get out at night again! Sooner or later that kid's gonna find me roasting inside an oven!" He exclaims in a loud whisper as he rushes to the door, then looks at Zed and Nox. "You two are coming, right?"

Zed nodded, but Nox was bewildered. "Hold on, hold on, why the hell do I have to tag along?" The fire type questioned, looking confused and about to lay back down.

"Well, we're gonna need someone to roast **his** ass and make sure that the message gets into that thick skull of his, c'mon!" He hurried them as he walked over to the door carefully, the two younger males sighing, one followed the bird and the other looked back at his mate one last time, waved goodbye with a smile and then got out of the room without waking up anyone else.

Eric found himself walking downstairs with the aforementioned troupe, sighing. "I told her to stay calm… we're probably going to find him in the middle of a clearing or near a river just laying down carelessly." Saying exactly what the Pidgeot was thinking, but even then, they were going to go look for him, so… there really was no point in talking about it now.

The group was met with the sight of Luca and Radius ready to leave the house. They have stopped because they heard their steps going downstairs. "Did you ask them to come?" Rad asked his mother upon seeing the group of four. She shook her head, and they also understood that Dark had definitely taken way too long to come back… and after what had happened in Zalkar, none of them were willing to take any chances.

"Hey, where's the fire?" Dust's voice came from the hallway. The Riolu going to check why there was so much noise this night. He got a brief explanation and without expecting of anyone to give him the okay, he had added himself to the search, fully awake now as Ren's warning came back to his mind.

Meanwhile, Dark had his mind on the dream and what he'd seen on it. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the image, stopping his walking to rub his eyes a bit and sighed. ' _Get your bearings, man!_ 'He thought and sighed ' _How can a damn nightmare do this to one?_ ' He asked himself and looked around. The Zoroark had lost the sense of time and also didn't pay attention where he was going. ' _Heh… Great…_ ' He told himself and would've punched his face if that didn't made him look like a mad Pokémon. Feeling lost, he started to use his nose to try and find the way back. One of the large list of things he loved from the curse was the improved senses, it made it impossible to get lost unless one couldn't recognize their own scent, so he started to follow his own trail to get back, looking to the sky to try and read the hour. He couldn't tell for sure but it was clear that he had been out some hours, and he cursed as he headed back. The night was calm and only now that he was more aware… ' _This silence is creeping me out._ ' He thought as his eyes for some reason looked around every step he gave.

The group of seven pokémon got out of the house and looked around for a bit. Zed eventually found a trail of paw prints that lead deep into the forest, and even though the pokémon there were friendly to the Kaiser, there was still the possibility that Dark could stumble upon one of Dailos' followers and die. ' _Damn it Dark, why must you do these things?! If you had a nightmare, you could've done a million other things before going out on your own… do you not care about what could happen?!'_ Eric said internally, getting a feeling of oppression in his chest, and hastened his pace. Something was unsettling about the forest tonight.

The sound of steps approaching from the front scared both the group and the Zoroark, but eventually they all saw eachtoher. "Dark!" Serge shouted with a tone that could sound similar to that of an angry yet caring father. He gave a jump for it and for finding them as well, not expecting what could be called a search party to be after him.

"Have I been out that long?" He asked, scratching behind his head, trying to seem calm now. And true he was more calm than when he had gone out, but Luca and Dust could still feel some worry from him, but both wore serious faces, he was in for a scold.

"Only four hours… after what happened a few days ago at Zalkar." Eric sentenced, then stepped forward. "What were you thinking?!" Even though he was smaller than Dark, the Zoroark did not impress him at all… if anything, he was acting much more immaturely than he had expected. "You can't just walk off into the night and take a stroll without anyone accompanying you in the night! Even if there's no one here to hurt you, do you not remember that there's a literal bounty on your and Natalie's heads? You have legendaries, of all pokémon, trying to kill you!" He was furious and tired of his exploits.

"Not exactly the first thought when you dream of your parents being killed!" The Zoroark spat back. He was trying to calm down, knowing himself, but the frustration born from worry and now getting scolded had made him snap. Luca got wide eyed hearing this, same with Dust and Rad. "It's not like you ever have nightmares at all! Looking so high and mighty all the damn time, but you literally don't know anything about what feeling scared is like, do you?!"

Eric stood silent for a bit, and all three of his friends looked at him. The Riolu, however, didn't say anything. "You think… that I'm not scared?" He asked, looking at Dark. "What, do you think that I am someone who hasn't let emotions get to his head and done something out of frustration, rage or fear?! How naïve are you?! You're still wet behind the ears, and you've got the guts to tell me that?! I've stared death in the face, Dark! I've witnessed as an entire world was consumed, and that vision **still** haunts my dreams from time to time! I've seen how friends died and gave up their lives for me and those around me, I've definitely gotten angry and smashed some bastards in, and I've cried my own share of tears! But each time that happened things only got worse and worse, and even thought I suffered I made others pay higher prices! Dreams of loved ones dying? I've seen those loved ones die before my eyes, Dark, Elly of all pokémon, almost ended up like that too!" Eric was starting to get pretty heated too, having gotten fed up with Dark's selfish actions. The last comment where he had involved Elly was just uncalled for, and his three companions looked at him in shock. But he wasn't done yet. "In case you didn't know, Elly almost took her own life out pure despair, and it was all my fault, because I was an idiot that didn't think of himself and that kept taking stupid decisions!" He pointed accusingly at Dark. "And that's exactly what you're being: **An idiot!** "

Luca, Dust and Radius looked at the regular Riolu with wide eyes, surprised since none of them expected to hear such information, but with the current situation neither of the three dared to say a word, except to try and calm the two arguing Pokémon but they were ignored completely.

"Well, sorry for not sharing your experience, War Veteran!" The Zoroark said at him. "I never trained for a war nor knew I'd end up thrown into one. Hell this world for me was just something out of someone's imagination until I stepped foot into it!" He said.

"Do you think I care about how you ended up here?! Or how you turned into a pokémon and the fact you were once human?! The only thing I care about is that **you** are acting like a selfish kid for walking off in the night with no good reason and making everyone get worried sick about you! If you're not going to take care of yourself for your own good, then at least do it for others so that they don't have to suffer! It's like you barely value your life! This world may have once been fake to you, but it's not anymore! This isn't a game Dark!" As they both got angrier and angrier, more and more of the surrounding pokémon were calling them to stop the dispute, and eventually it all just devolved into screaming and angry shouting.

"I'm acting like a kid? Well tell who's acting like his rules are the only ones that should be followed!" Dark said back, both of them were ignoring the pleas of the others to calm down."From the moment you got to this house, you've established your own personal dictatorship to keep us all in line!"

Dark had gone out to calm down, and it resulted on being more frustrating that it was worth. The Zoroark with all he had in mind because of the dream had completely forgotten about the Legendaries warning or that his and Natalie's life were on the line, and now this. It was too much, but the Riolu wasn't quite done yet. "I stablished 'rules' just to keep you all safe, but these 'rules' you speak off are things that even **the stupidest of people would do!** Things like… I don't know, going out into the forest in the middle of the night while you're being hunted down?! How come you haven't been killed yet if you're so damn careless?!" Eric's frustration with the Zoroark boiled down to the fact that, in his eyes, he was being unreasonable with these nightly escapades, even being fully aware of the dangers that accompanied them.

Frustration. Worry. Anger. Helplessness. All that swarmed Dark's head, and Eric had added all the pressure of him and Natalie being hunted, which was then that he remembered it. He knew that he couldn't protect himself and his sister. That he couldn't do anything. "What would you know about how I felt seeing you all fighting to protect us while I did **nothing**!?" He roared, summoning a Shadow ball out of sheer frustration. "And now I have a dream about my parents being murdered and I can't do anything either! How the fuck do you think that feels!?" He kept, his eyes getting crystallized with tears that threatened with bursting out. He was about to launch the ball, charged with all that was going through his mind, if not because Dust jumped in and made him stop. Even then, the Shiny Riolu was beaten to talk.

" **Guys stop it!** " Zed shouted at the top of his lungs as Eric was about to slam his staff straight into Dark's maw out of pure reflex, and he was going to be so quick that nobody would've been able to stop it in time. Zed's words deterred him however, and he looked at his best friend, immediately regretting it as he noticed his irate face: he knew that Zed absolutely despised getting like that, and that the mere fact he was the center of attention ate away at him from the inside and made him feel sick… and he had pushed him to such limit by starting this argument with Dark. "Look, this is an extremely… extremely important discussion that you need to sort out, but… This isn't the time, nor the place…" He said, a deadly silence hanging in the air, the realization creeping up all of them, freezing Eric and Dark's fires as if death itself had stretched its slithery hand and taken a hold of their hearts, freezing their blood on the spot for just a second, pressure building up in their bodies.

Dark looked around after those words and then looked at his attack and dismissed it. He had gotten too heated over this. And if he was honest, Eric was right that he was being reckless going out alone during the night, but he didn't have another way to calm down his nerves. However, even then, now that they have stopped arguing, that feeling that it was too calm to be a forest at night got to him again. "Is it me or… it's just too calm?" Radius asked, looking around, his fur rising as he started to get creeped out.

"It is… it way too silent for this forest to be filled with pokémon and stuff… it's creeping me out a lot man!" Nox said, also getting that same foreboding sensation. They all instinctively crowded together, and the sensation of being watched finally manifested itself. The leaves of the trees rustled with the howling wind, circling around them like a predator that isolates its prey, and eventually they saw little streaks of black flashing by them over the even more inexpugnable darkness, and again and again, a shade circled them constantly, barely visible under the moonlight.

"Nox… I need you to light this place up…" Eric said, the Houndour looking at him as if he was dumb. "We need the light, now!" Eric ordered once more, Nox taking a deep breath and then breathing fire, which quickly spread to the bushes

Luca, Radius, Dust and Dark stood close to Eric and the others, looking around with their fur raised and not only by the static. Luca and Dust used their sights but they couldn't see anything at all, yet the feeling kept there. Eric used his aura sights too, and came to the same horrible realization… a chill went down his spine.

"I know it might sound crazy but… Is it possible to hide Aura?" Dust asked, unsure of this, opening his eyes again. It sounded crazy even for him, but then why that feeling of being watched kept there if there wasn't anyone.

"He is visible to the bare eye, but invisible to aura sight… It can't be!" He followed the shape with his eyes, and all of a sudden he found that it was staring right at him. Almost immediately he looked away, finally remembering, and the instant he did the shape disappeared. He made his discovery known to all. " **It's him! It's the guy that's been chasing us!** " Immediately the other three members of Team Star got ready for battle, and same with Eric, looking for the shape frantically.

Hearing that, Dust gulped, if someone was crazy enough to chase this Pokémon, then he and his family better run while they can and get out of the way. ' _The question is… will it let us go?_ ' He thought, looking around trying to find it as where all the others doing. "We should get away from here." Dust said, trying to whisper loud enough to be heard by the group. No one answered verbally and, after a bit, the Shiny Riolu tried to make a run to the trees.

Eric noticed it too late. "Dust, wait!" He called out, and just as he did, the figure descended down from the skies right in front of Dust, almost crushing him into the ground, its cape waving in impossible ways to reveal two large psychic swords coming from the ends of its sleeves, contrasting against the fire behind it ominously, and staring down at Dust with piercing purple eyes and a wicked grin, trying to control his mind. The Riolu skid to a stop when he heard Eric and cursed as he was almost stepped over, to put it lightly. The sight horrified everyone, and Nox quickly blasted the figure with a fireball, which didn't hit it… The figure just wasn't there when the fireball flew in its direction.

" **What the-?!** " Everyone exclaimed in unison. That wasn't speed… it was something else entirely! Dust went back to the group with some kind of headache after a little eye contact.

"Stick close! Circle formation! Don't leave an inch open!" Eric ordered, and everyone did as he told, making a circle and covering eachother's backs, making sure to be facing all possible angles. "Don't look at it's eyes! It'll try to take control and kill you!" Eric warned them as the flames roared off to the side, the forest falling silent again.

Dark was more than nervous. Again they were in troubles because of his escapades to calm down. "Next time I want to go out in the middle of the night… please tie me to chair." He said.

"Dark, let jokes for when you survive." Radius said.

"Shut up!" Luca said to the both of them. Dust then thought something, they couldn't see the attacker and he was probably too slow to do anything against it, seeing how fast it moved but maybe he could hear and smell it? After all those two senses were strong ones on him. He was considering to try it… but the risk was too big. However, even thinking about this, his ears, as well as Luca's, Dark's and Radius' were moving like crazy, looking for sounds, as well as the four noses looked for any scent that was strange mixing with the forest's own, this two being natural reactions to locate the threat that nature had given them and their instincts used without hesitation.

 **(Jester Battle - Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition)**

They wouldn't sense anything however, he was gone for this sole instant, the forest falling silent again… The sounds began once more, circling around them and the flames, everyone getting ready for a fight, their hearts beating faster and faster with every passing second. "Where… where is it?!" Eric asked out loud. The rustling stopped, and for a moment nothing was heard. A noise, similar to that of a twig cracking, came from behind everyone, and air was pushed towards them… the next instant the figure was falling down on them from the tree tops, doing a cross slash to try and cut Eric into tiny bits, signaling the beginning of the battle as he cartwheeled away.

He summoned his light staff and was immediately forced to block and strike against a flurry of lightning fast blows from his opponent, who struck and stepped towards him simultaneously, forcing Eric to back away into the fire, and even then, his speed and precision weren't quite enough to block every strike, the swords cutting and digging into his flesh every so often, scarring and wounding him. Dust spread the word to his family to stay away as much time as possible from the enemy, getting close would mean serious injuries, and to keep in mind Eric's warning. Radius was the first to react, remembering how he did it before and sending a Thundershock towards the guy attacking Eric, making sure that the Riolu, nor anyone, was the next on the line of the attack in case it decided to dodge it. If they couldn't do anything to this foe at least they'll try to make it back up from those who actually could fight to give them some room.

Dust saw this and assisted his brother with an attack of his own, sending a little bone of aura towards their attacker, missing him not because he dodged but because of miscalculating the flying path of the bone… but it then started to turn, doing a U-turn in mid air and then coming back, the path going towards the head of this unknown guy, Dust had managed to imitate a Bonemerang with a little bone rush. Luca was more concentrated on keeping Dark behind her and out of this for as much time as possible and the Zoroark for once wasn't protesting for it. Suddenly, their foe did something that was physically impossible… it slammed its blades on Eric's staff and then jumped up and turned around… but didn't come back down, instead started slashing away and Eric upside down, spinning and slicing the air with such viscerality that the Riolu's paws were covered in cuts as he faced that deadly spinning wheel, the Riolu being forced to roll from underneath it.

Nox blasted him again, everyone dumbfounded at what had just happened. "What the hell!? This guy just broke grav-" He was interrupted as a psychic sword nearly cut off his head, but instead made a nasty scratch on his right cheek, howling and rolling away, everyone turning around and looking at the cloaked figure's new location, Serge spiralled towards him and started slashing, absolutely livid from having wounded Nox like that, whilst Zed quickly checked his wound.

"It's alright, it's just a scratch! Ge-" He shouted as he pushed Nox away and himself to avoid a flying Serge, who had been knocked back by a forceful kick, with a psychic blade that was aimed straight at his neck flying right after him, and their opponent reappearing right behind him, aiming to slash his head clean off with a single strike if the sword missed. Serge twirled and opened his wings, barely avoiding the blade and clashing a wing with the other sword, falling on his back on the ground, while Eric intervened at the last possible second and blocked the other sword aimed to cut the Pidgeot's head off. He and the assassin exchanged blows for a bit, the creature catching the other blade as it flew by, and then had to struggle between Eric and Serge as they both struck at once from opposite ends.

Luca was the one this time to throw a sphere at the cloaked figure to make it back up. She wasn't the only one as one of Dust was on its way, Rad had sent another Thundershock at the figure and Dark send a ghostly orb. The four attacks flying at the creature as everyone readied another attack right after the first. By the looks of it it would be a waste of energy to throw attacks blindly when they didn't even knew if the first would land to begin with, or do anything at all.

The shots were enough to make it teleport to dodge. It looked at Luca and Dark, then looked at the roaring fire, and lifted a log, smashing it on the ground as smoke spread everywhere, concealing itself. Afterwards, it began moving with that same unbelievable speed behind the two of them, and lunged in for a strike.

Luca heard the steps from behind them and pushed Dark to the side as she turned quickly and summoned a Bone rush and held it in a blocking posture. This guy hit hard… **very hard** , so she tried adding her ice to the move to reinforce her defense against it, the bone covered by a thick layer of ice, while Dark fell to the floor for that push and turned to look at Luca. The creature didn't bother struggling, and instead teleported right behind her, on top of Dark, aiming a sword right to his head whilst it bends forward and shoots its right leg upwards and slams Luca up into the air. It teleports again, this time right where Luca is, and tries to slash her to bits once more. Once more, Luca put her ice covered aura bone in front of her as Dark looked up at her, he wasn't fast enough but even then he tried to throw an Aura sphere at the creature. The Lucario also added something to her defense, charging aura into the bone. A hit would free that aura into a wave that will push everything away from its epicenter.

The blades hit the staff and destroyed it, also freeing the wave of aura, Luca being sent towards the ground in a diagonal angle and out of the battle as she slid across the ground, doing heavy damage, but the creature was still pushed back, and Serge was right behind to follow up. It tried to slash it with his wings, and he managed to land a single scratch on its cloak, as it suddenly bounced off of thin air and rolled over the wing, but it suddenly vanished, and it reappeared moving towards Eric with that same momentum… that's when they all knew.

"It's teleporting!" Zed shouted as it headed right towards him and tried to block the blades by transforming into a golem and using his arms… but even though they were made out of stone, they were cut, albeit not completely, they just got stuck in his arms, and he howled out in pain, his shout going through the entire forest. Eric roared in rage and charged for him to help his best friend, but as he tried to slam his staff into the creature's face, it teleported behind him…

"Gotcha!" Nox exclaimed happily as he managed to blast the shape with a fireball. Seeing as it had been teleporting behind his opponents continuously, he predicted it would go behind Eric next… and he was right. The figure managed to block with its arm, and its robe caught on fire and was pushed towards the fire, but it quickly teleported to the ground, sliding across it and making sure to put out the fire on its sleeve. Whilst he was distracted by this however, Lucy suddenly came out of the trees and slammed straight into its back. Their foe had no way to know she was coming and received the full force of the impact, which was followed by a brutal psychic blast from Elly, which sent it towards Eric, who attempted to attack, but it teleported away, and stared at the incoming remaining members of Team Star and the Kaiser household.

Serge attempted to attack from behind, but he doesn't seem able to hit it, and he instead starts a struggle with him, eventually being pushed away. The cloaked creature jumps up incredibly quickly and high, as if attempting to escape, and Serge followed closely, even though everyone tells him to not do so, and they both exchange slashes at a rapid pace as they rise, but Serge's blows are parried, just as he parries his opponent's own as he flies around him in an amazingly quick display of skill as his wings and blades clash together in midair, meeting one last time in midair, standing still as if time had stopped. And what happened afterwards only Lucy could see clearly, and this is how she described it to all.

Both of them pushed the other away, the assassin teleporting, and then they both teleported, Serge's wings glowed and there was an incredibly strong gust which carried the Pidgeot's words: " **Shine!** ", which he would later explain meant "Die" in his tongue. The next instant, and this, Lucy said, was what she saw, was both of them clashing in midair, and the next they were on the ground, facing away from eachother. After this everyone clearly saw what happened: A cut appeared all the way from Serge's waist to his shoulder, making him fall to the ground and howl in pain, and at the same time, the Pursuer's cloak was ripped in a spot on it's waist, drawing out blood.

 **(Stop the music)**

It didn't even scream in pain as it instead backed away and teleported behind the fire for protection. It was just one wound, and could keep on fighting, albeit with difficulty. However, since they were all there, the creature did not wish to continue to fight further. If it continued it would definitely kill some of them, but it would most likely perish or be defeated… and that he couldn't allow. It glared all of them, promising them all that this fight would continue at another time. It then vanished into the trees, barely visible, and then it disappeared again, the forest falling silent once more, the only sound being that of the roaring fires consuming the trees and bushes nearby.

"Is everyone ok?!" Came Hadrim's voice as he approached the place. Dark stood up and ran towards where he saw Luca falling, worried and not answering the Espeon. Dust was panting, looking around.

"That was crazy…" He let out, to blow some tension and then breathed in.

"What were you doing out here to begin with?" Luna asked the eight of them. The Vulpix going to a side of the clearing and starting to walk over the fire, absorbing it to put it out. Dust deciding to help by blowing water over it.

While Radius explained what had made them go out, Dark had found Luca, and went to her side in a hurry. He let out a sigh of relief as he felt her breathing, difficult but there, and found her pulse, weak yes, but her heart kept beating. The Zoroark stood there, kneeling by her side. Not knowing what to do, just looking at her wounded, bruised and unconscious form. He couldn't put how terrible he felt in words. The moment of her fighting that thing repeating in his mind, even as he tried to push it away. He had a lump in his throat that kept him quiet. She wasn't able to step aside of the attack to push him away, and he couldn't do anything to help her… **again**. His hands were balled into fists and he wanted to roar his frustration, but what good would that bring?… All he'd done that night had been, as someone had said, tantrums from a little kid, and it all led to this disaster. All because of his choice to keep a stupid yet painful nightmare for himself instead of sitting down with her and talk about it as she offered him to do. This time he couldn't hold back the tears. Tears of frustration, impotence and guilt.

Meanwhile, after Rad's explanation, Hadrim sighed and looked around, but his eyes widened as he realized someone was missing. "Wait… where's Luca!?" He asked in a panic. Serge getting back up and leading him to the spot where he had seen the Lucario land. Sure enough, she was there… all bruised and bloodied, with cuts and open wounds from the crash and with Dark by her side. The Zoroark didn't react to their arrival. Hadrim was speechless, and so was the Pidgeot, who looked at his friends with a face that… was simply indescribable, and yet conveyed a sense of failure.

Dark said nothing as he turned to see the others, not being able to held any of their gazes, much less Hadrim's or any of the three Kaiser siblings. He felt utterly worthless: with all that had happened, he was the one who had ended up better, not a scratch on him, and all thanks to Luca, who was in that horrible state because she had protected him, and Eric, Zed, Serge and Nox were all wounded in one way or another… He felt weak and defenseless, and thought that he was just horrible, not being capable to fight, even for his life… Natalie had done a lot of progress when compared to him. He clenched his fist tighter then and there, and looked at the pokémon surrounding him, and swore upon his heart and name: he'd get stronger, much stronger, and do anything in his power to never let anything like that happen ever again.

Meanwhile, Eric was on his knees. Adrenaline was still rushing through his body, and the amount of stress that he had been put under was taking a toll on him. He felt like he was about to throw up whatever dinner was left in him, and it was the same with the others. Nox had that nasty scar on his face, which he hoped would eventually go away. Serge was in bad shape: wasn't screaming in pain anymore, as Shade's wishes had diminished the intensity of the pain, but that was the least of his worries: he couldn't move his wings without his entire chest hurting and burning, his back ached and his wings felt sore and tired from having blocked too many strikes. Not only that, but that last stunt… it had given him one hell of a migraine, which he didn't explain…

But Zed… He couldn't even stand from how badly his front legs were bleeding, unable to hold back cries of pain and tears, and Lucy was making sure she cried for both herself and him. The Zorua had been the first to whom Shade had gone to help. She had already put a pair of wishes on him to heal those cuts, but she'll need a few more to close them completely. At least Lucy wasn't jumping on her on her distress. The Shiny Eevee putting all her efforts on the healing move as the wounds seemed to not be closing at all. ' _This would be easier if the wounds were stitched._ ' She thought.

"Don't worry, it'll heal… eventually… I'll need some time to recover…" Zed kept telling them, Eric feeling like his consciousness was slowly slipping away. Just seeing his friend in that state, and still with a smile… He didn't know what would've hurt more: to see him crying or seeing him trying to be his absolute strongest in front of everyone else... The bruised and battered Riolu groaned and fell to his knees, his fur matted in blood seeping out of wounds and scratches, and Elly rushed to his side as the adrenaline finally left his body. Shade heard this and she looked to see him that way, the Shiny Eevee put one last wish on Zed before rushing to Eric as well, approaching and, as fast as she could, trying to close his bleeding wounds as she started to feel the pressure that her own mother still needed healing.

"Eric! No, hold on! He's losing too much blood!" Elly shouted, her screams starting to sound distant. Was he losing too much? To be honest, he was starting to feel lightheaded, and there was an annoying ringing in his ears… but what he was more focused on was the general sense of failure and disappointment in himself… but overall anger. As he fell down and his mate screamed out in a panic, much like Dark had done a few seconds earlier, he promised and swore upon his heart and name: he'd get stronger, and do anything in his power to prevent this from happening ever again.

And then, he lost consciousness, defeated by The Pursuer.

* * *

( **Dark Rebirth - JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders** )

The creature stood in the darkness of the locker room, having discarded it's cloak, which hid its true shape and identity, leaving it on the nearby bench, and stepped into the tiny cubicle with the shower. It sat down, and carefully and systematically started stitching the wound on it's side with a set of sterilized needles and silk he had… acquired from a the medical locker of that sport center. All the cameras had been destroyed, as per usual, and this time around there were no night guards he had had to dispose of, which made matters much easier and simpler in the long run.

"I told you I should've been the one to fight. You're too unbalanced, too idiotic! Bloodshed is all you enjoy, yet you do not think rationally, hence why they got away! They called their friends through their necklaces while you were too busy fighting, and didn't pay attention to the psychic waves that were filling the area! Fool!" The figure kept suturing the wound with skill. It didn't want to leave too much evidence… nobody had to know the reason they had been here. It grabbed the scissors and cut the last bit of silk, finally leaving the wound sutured. It would have to do until it could find a way to heal it quicker. It stood up and turned on the shower for a bit, thinking… and eventually, it thought about stopping the shower… but instead just stood there, letting the water was away whatever there was left.

He was right. He was absolutely right on every single point. The male's voice was correct, as always, and it admitted it, albeit not without being a little angry… Well, at least now they knew where they were, so it'd be easier to hunt them from now on… It thought that would make him happy, but instead it felt a hand grabbing the back of its head and slamming it against the marble wall with no mercy, blood splattering.

"Idiot…. they were on the other island too, remember?! And now they were on this one… They are moving constantly! And they have those friends now… they were moving, not staying in one place for too long because they thought we were after them… We still had the element of surprise to some extent! This was our only chance…" The hand drove its face further into the wall. " **And you've ruined it**." He was being way too harsh now…

"You think I'm being harsh?! This isn't a game! You've wasted your chance at usefulness… You're useless to us! Useless!" His words were bashing against it directly… and eventually, they got fed up, grabbed the hand with its own and then bit down on the attacking…

( **Stop the music** )

It yelled in pain as it drew blood from its own hand, biting down on it like a rabid animal defending against a predator. It turned around and rest its back against the far wall of the small cubicle, then slowly descended and sat down, holding its head, sitting down like a lifeless ragdoll.

What had they gotten themselves into?

* * *

 **Ray: And there you have it everyone! "Tension Rising" and a not-so-new enemy at Team Star's level… this is going to be an impossible for my group it seems… ufff**

 **Eric: Well… I have been hyping up this guy for AGES now. To the more dedicated and accute readers out there, I'm telling you this now: There are enough clues spread and sprinkled across this fic to deduce exactly who The Pursuer is.**

 **Ray: you mean for those that have enough memory to remember your whole first book without looking at it? Because then I agree.**

 **Eric: I mean… they can totally go look at it, it's on the internet for everyone to see, but… yes. Dedicated readers! (Because I know you're out there, people!)**

 **Ray: if some of you know… pls pm me the answer!**

 **Eric: Hehehe… as of writing this, I have the biggest shit eating grin ever. If you feel like making a prediction, do PM me too!**

 **Ray: you just want to laugh at our misses and deny when there is someone that nails it.**

 **Eric: Of course! Because why would I only give you accurate hints? Why not give you some false or miss-leading hints? The rabbit hole goes deeper, my friends! But… I think that's enough for this chapter. The Pursuer is a massive threat, and I hope this fight put that into perspective. Later the characters will go into detail as to why this new foe is so dangerous and what sets him apart from the rest. But until then…**

 **Ray: let's not talk about holes… and I'd say Stalker more than Pursuer but yeah your Chara, got it memorized? Anyways yeah enough for this chapter. We hope you enjoyed it guys, next one will come I promise! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**


	13. Chapter 12 - Gradual Healing

**Eric: Alright, sorry for this chapter taking ages to come out everyone… really, I should be the one to apologize: Ray had everything done and translated but I got up to my armpits in exams (friends will know exactly what I'm talking about), but it's all good now.**

 **Ray: Almost wished I was the last to translate again, that way my mind wouldn't have gon crazy with… character stuff.**

 **Eric: Heh… Well, anyways, let's not keep you entertained any longer, read the reviews and jump straight into the chapter! So right off the bad, new reviewer, Luchux! Glad to see you're enjoying the fic, and there are many possibilities as to who the Pursuer really is, but… we'll see soon enough.**

 **Eric: JOOOOOOOOOOJOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Ok, in all seriousness, it's amazing to see you again West. And yeah, Dante got the short end of the stick… or did he? Adam is a bastard though, that is confirmed.**

 **Ray: Seemingle non sense scenes… yeah that's me, West… dealing with multiples plots, and almost forgeting about some.**

 **Eric: Breaks? Pffff, what are those? And it's up to Ray to expalin if it's a dream or not.**

 **Ray: What's a dream? What's a Nightmare? I'm still trying to figure it out when a… sleeping experience shows you the both sides of dreaming… Not the case and I'm not making any sense… I'm sleepy! It's fucking Sunday in the morning!**

 **Eric: It is meant to confuse, but there is one thing clear now: one of them is a man/male pokémon, and it is unclear whether it's only one guy with split personalities or if there many of hm, possession… nobody knows!**

 **Eric: And yes, there are hints all over this book and in the first to decipher who he is, and in fact, SOMEONE has figured out who it is! Contragulations, Hjof (btw, missing your reviews over here, feel free to review any time, but don't spoil who it is please). And don't come to me with the typing stuff West! We're long over that, even Alger knows!**

 **Eric: Oh god, that would be like… what, the fifth, sixth time that Nymphe comes back? Nah, I wouldn't do that… or would I?!11**

 **Ray: *put a shadow claw on your chest* Don't. You. Dare.  
Anyways. Again sorry for this taking so long, life's a bitch and seems like university is worse… Could I have helped? ...yeah and messed up a few things, you know writing twice the same in two languages… Ok I'm getting out of trak. We hope you enjoy the chapter! See you down! ON WITH IT PEOPLE!**

 **Chapter 12**

 **Gradual Healing**

Dark was panting, kneeling down with an aura bone to keep himself up. Dust attacked, swinging his own aura bone downwards towards the Zoroark, who quickly put his on the way and with a slight angle. Having all the strength of the blow going in the same direction, Dark just needed to apply some resistance to parry the blow, swinging his bone quickly afterwards and smashing it into Dust's face, blood jumping from his face and the Zoroark followed by summoning an aura sphere and hitting Dust with it close combat. The Riolu was sent flying backwards and rolled on the ground for a bit until he stopped and then rose slowly with an open cut over one eye. The golden Jackal was as tired as the Zoroark, but the dark type had more bruises than ever. Dust launched an Aura sphere that the dark type fox sent to the sky, just to immediately get kneeled on the gut and be bent over, Dust finished him with an dowards kick to the neck with all his strength, leaving Dark unconscious on the ground, before he himself fell on his knees, panting and then over the other's back, fainted from exhaustion.

They've been training since sunrise. Fighting with everything they had. Dark had finally made progress after the encounter with that stalker, barely two months ago, and it has been the Zoroark's idea to not stop until one of them literally was brought down. The first times there was a clear winner but now it was getting hard to guess. Dust had won because he knew Dark would parry the Aura sphere and took the opportunity to put Eric's instructions to action, taking Dark's opening to kneel him on the stomach and then finishing him with that solid kick to the neck. Was there fear of breaking the other's neck? Yes, but he couldn't hold back.

Meanwhile, Elly watched quietly from the sidelines. She was the only member of Team Star there, and Eric was nowhere to be seen… for obvious reasons, which she didn't want to discuss with anyone. There was a lot on her mind, and it probably showed. At least, Radius could see it on her face. The Jolteon tried to say something, but no words came to him to try and talk to her, so he just approached the unconscious duo and picked his brother over his back, the Riolu's legs almost touching the floor, as well as the arms. With trouble but with some practise, the electric type could carry the other two back home.

* * *

Back to the household, Hadrim was putting his cooking abilities to test. The Espeon was slow at it but he managed to get done what he wanted to. He prepared a plate and a glass of oran berry juice, putting it all into a trail that he then carried to his room. "That smells good, dad." Radius said to him and the Espeon smiled.

"Thank you. There's more if you want to take a plate, just be careful to not throw it around." He answered to then continue towards his room. Once inside he found Luca sewing a blanket. She stopped as she saw him and smiled at her mate as he went to her and jumped on the bed while leaving the trail over her lap carefully when she set her work aside.

"You still as sweet as ever, dear." She said to him smiling and reaching out with a paw to the which he rubbed his body against, letting her hug him while he purred.

"Anything for my love." He answered, making her giggle slightly and start eating, and getting very surprised.

"Woah! It's been a lot since last time you cooked something." She said "I had almost forgot how you made the Mac n' Cheese with this intense flavour." She praised him, being the best cook of the household herself and admitting his recipe, learned from experimentation, was better than hers was saying something. "And you didn't even use meat but berries!" She squealed like a cub, making him chuckle now as he lay down by her side. "This is **divine**!"

"Stop it! You're gonna make me go redder than a Flareon." He said.

"You're already as hot as one so why not?" She teased with a smirk and then both of them laughed slightly.

After some minutes, Hadrim decided to turn on the TV to at least listen to the news report. The TV starting halfway through a new that talked about a regional festivity. Then it gave way to a new that Hadrim put his ears on.

"The authorities had recently revealed that the bomb at Autumn park in the capital city of Meso Island uncovered some installations built underground right beneath the park." Said the anchor woman. "The investigation of the facility revealed a large amount of destroyed computers, a lot of broken investigation material, various quirurgical rooms and some containing rooms packed with cages in some of which they found starved corpses of young pokémon. This had made the social media explode and the Pokémon Rights Defenders had made their indignation clear on the Galvanet with twits like the ones that you are seeing right down here on screen at the moment." Some messages of indignated people and Pokémon are shown at the bottom of the tv screen, one of them even declaring 'This is war!' with a few angry emojis along. At the same time, a footage on the facilities is being shown, the camera even showing the covered corpses of around thirty Pokémon found within that place while the woman kept talking.

"The Sheriff Eustaquio Roma had declared that they'll do everything they can to find out who owned this facility and that this atrocity will not be left unpunished. On another side, Héctor Castillo, owner of the major battle business of the region and the man that founded the construction of this park for human children and young Pokémon to play together, had declared that he never had any knowledge of this installations being under the terrain he bought to build it and had expressed his indignation rather strongly." The footage changes to a man well dressed with dark hair and green eyes walking on the streets until the interviewer asks him about this discovery, that is when he stops and looks at it, rage glowing in his eyes.

"What they have done is utterly disgusting. I placed the funds for the construction of this park, to transform it into one more crossing road where humans and pokémon, young or old, could coexist peacefully… and someone has been using it for their own illegal experiments on pokémon! This is an outrage! Not only towards my person, but to all those who consider them as equals. If needed to I will grant more fundings to aid in this investigation, and you all better be ready… because I shall find who did this… and I will make them pay." The last thing he said was said in such a tone that sent chills down Hadrim's spine as the man walked away in a haste and the interviewer and the camera man stood in place, and then it shifted back to the set.

"It is a real tragedy to know this and we can only hope that the responsible of this is brought to justice soon." The anchorman said before the news passed on to weather and afterwards to sports. Hadrim turned down the volume of the TV after those news.

"What a bunch of fucking pricks." An infuriated an annoyed voice echoed from upstairs, and they both looked up to pinpoint it's exact location. It was Serge, who was laying on the bed in Team Star's room and watching the news alongside Nox and Zed. Both he and the Zorua were still incapacitated, albeit Serge could walk around just fine and move his wings, albeit it still hurt when he bent over or tried to fly. Zed was slowly starting to walk again, but he said it would take a few more weeks before he would finally be able to stand properly again.

"That's so horrible, wow… I don't know who's worse: those guys that put the lab there or the guy that blew it up, killing everyone there and whoever was playing in the park." Zed was the one who pointed this out, since Nox was about to doze off from how boring the news were, asides from that last one.

"Yeah, like hell it's gonna be the guy that blew it up! Can you imagine what it must've felt to be stuck in that place?"

"No, I don't, but I still think that killing so many innocents in the process doesn't render that bomber a hero."

"I didn't say that! I said that they were "a bunch of fucking pricks", so I meant both of them!"

Serge and Zed kept on debating, and Nox eventually grew tired and said he was going for a walk around the house, seeing as this whole thing was going nowhere. On his way out, he almost bumped head first into Lucy.

"Oh, hey, didn't see ya there." The Houndour greeted. "What's up?" His question went unanswered for a bit, and the Houndour looked behind her to see a rather sad looking Eevee, and then looked back to notice the annoyed look on Lucy's face. "Ah… yeah, right. Well, see ya." He walks past her, not wanting to get into whatever dynamic was going on between her and Elly, and so only greeted the Eevee quickly as he walked down the stairs, leaving her to her sulking as she sat down on the steps.

She looked tired, immensely tired, and in fact she was, because for the last month and a half she had been getting as much, or less sleep than Eric had had… And that was very little sleep, considering the Riolu got up to stand guard every single night, for long periods of time, and then went away with either Nox, Jake or both, to train incredibly hard. And it happened day after day, night after night… and each time she tried to talk him out of it he only dismissed her and told her that she was worrying too much, that he just had to do it, or he just plain ignored her pleas and many times refuted them, saying that she should leave him to do what he pleased.

She knew exactly why he was being like that, and each time she thought about it… she could feel her heart sinking just a little more…

* * *

 _He was bloodied and battered, and yet he was slowly recovering his consciousness, having applied so many bandages and whatever she had been given in order to close the wounds and stop the bleeding, all while Shade recovered from having been using all of her energy. Zed and Serge were in the other room, the former now unconscious, but with his wounds now treated, but the other was wide awake, incapable of sleeping just out of sheer worry and anger with himself. He had been so close… yet so far._

 _The Riolu groaned as he finally woke up, and Elly quickly rushed to him, and began bombarding him with questions about how he felt, if he could talk, if he felt sick… But he answered none of them, and instead only groaned, this time in annoyance as she kept on bothering her. She didn't want to be all over him so soon… she just wanted to make sure he was ok before he went anywhere. Instead, however, the Riolu just looked at himself, then at her, and asked:_

" _How long until I can stand properly again?"_

* * *

It had taken him considerably shorter to recover, a week at most, and after that this whole hellish routine of pushing everyone and everything away, only focusing on training and protecting others, had started. Everyone understood why he was doing it, and Serge had sworn to join him after he could fight properly again… but it just wasn't worth it in the Eevee's eyes. He was pushing himself to his limits, she could tell by how he slumped on the bed when he went to bed, how he flashed everyone a confident smile, even herself, as he came back from the three plus hours of training… but the moment he didn't think anyone was looking at him he took on a completely different face: a face of defeat.

Elly had realized long ago that the physical damage that The Pursuer had done was high, but not even close to what he had done to them psychologically: morale was at an all time low, and while most were still ok with eachother in terms of friendship, such as Serge, Zed or Nox, who still got along great with almost everyone, Jake had regressed a lot on his advances towards being emotional, and was being as cold as before and Lucy… she honestly thought Lucy blamed Eric and her for what had happened to Zed. Both of them had gotten into a huge argument a few days after the fight, where the Shinx explicitly stated the former, and Elly tried to defend her mate… and she guessed that must've been the reason her former best friend hated her so much right now,

She felt like crying, if she wanted to be honest with herself, because even though everyone was ok, she felt like she had lost a lot: Eric was in a really poor state, she was convinced that Lucy hated her, Serge and Zed tried to cheer her up, even through their misery, Nox just didn't want to get involved in any of that, and Jake was just ignoring everything and everyone. And that just Team Star, but the situation with the Kaiser was so much worse…

For starters, Eric, she, Lucy and Jake blamed Dark for everything that had happened, and even though that already got them on bad terms with basically everyone else, even though they all agreed that some of the blame was his, things had taken a turn for the worse when Lucy almost got in a fight with Natalie and Shade over how stupid Dark's decisions had been, further breaking apart Elly and the smaller Eevee, and Serge could barely look at Luca, as he still kicked himself and blamed himself for what had happened to her.

And then, to top it all off, two weeks after the fight, she and Eric had been called to talk with Hadrim and Luca… and it had gone extremely poorly.

* * *

" _We just want to know why didn't you tell us about this foe that is after you. We offered you our home so you'd have a safe place to be, yet you didn't think on warning us of such danger?" Hadrim had asked them, keeping a serious face, just wanting to know why this information was kept from them, while sitting on the floor besides the bed and Luca sitting on it with a pair of pillows behind her back as she tried to look at them both._

" _It wasn't our choice to teleport into this household unannounced, if you remember. We took all of the necessary precautions, stood guard all night and tried to defend you as best we could. Had we tried to leave, that thing would've followed us on our tracks, would've eventually found you and your family, and you would all be dead." Eric said coldly, starting to sound like Jake._

" _We didn't know what this new enemy was capable of, we-"_

" _I just asked why didn't you tell us about someone that has forced my mate to be in bed." He interrupted her. "As well as two of your friends." He added._

" _Eric was also wounded until a few days ago, Hadrim! We're sorry for what happened!" Elly suddenly noticed how the Riolu besides her was glaring daggers at the Espeon and herself. "We couldn't possibly know what they were capable of because we'd never seen them before! Just once, and we didn't think they'd follow us-"_

" _You don't have to apologize, Elly… if anyone should apologize it should be Dark! He almost got us all killed, and now here we are, having to deal with these complaints! We offered to keep you safe, but Dark simply ignored everything I said, thinking he was just so much stronger than whatever was out there, and look where he got us: Not a single scratch on him, but the rest of us were heavily wounded because he hid like a coward!" Eric's words were venomous, and his exclamations only served for the argument to escalate further._

 _Even then, Elly remembered the last words they uttered: "It knows who you are and where you are, so for the time being, unless you want your family to be ripped to shreds, we're staying here."_

* * *

She had never seen him like this, and she wondered… is this what he had been acting like during that time she had been gone, back home? Was this the Eric that their friends in Treasure Town had told her about? A much more aggressive Riolu, who only focused on getting stronger and trying to achieve a goal, no matter the cost as he travelled down a path of self destruction? Or was there something else? Either way, it was hurting her, it was causing her so much more pain than whatever it was doing to him. And so with a weak cry, which she just couldn't hold back, she bent over and started crying on the stairs, all of the pressure that had been amounting for the last few weeks finally getting to her.

Hadrim came out of the room, carrying the trail to go to the kitchen and leave it there, but he stopped when he heard sobbing. The Espeon let the trail aside and walked to the stairs to see Elly sitting there, crying. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable but he just couldn't see her like that. It was like seeing his daughter cry and not doing anything to help so he approached her, making some noise with his claws on the floor to call her attention before talking. "Elly?" he called with worry as he approached her and sat near her. "What's wrong?" He asked her gently.

"I just… I can't take it anymore Hadrim… this whole situation… it's just tearing me apart. I think that Lucy, my best friend, just plain hates Eric and I after what happened to Zed, Jake's lost whatever progress he made towards being more emotional and the rest… I think they just don't know what to do. I can't even look at Dark straight now with what's happened! I really don't know how to feel towards him anymore, because I know he didn't mean it, but… I also think like Eric, it was stupid, and I can't forgive him for it! And Eric's just… ignoring and neglecting me!" She starts crying now. "I didn't want any of this to happen, and I don't know what to do or tell anyone anymore!" Her cries are loud enough for the two arguing pokémon in the room next door to hear, and Lucy, who was about to go into the next room, but stops upon hearing her name and Zed's being mentioned.

Hadrim looks at her while she's talking and when she breaks down, moment he decides to get to her side and lower his head to her, he felt the need, maybe because of him being a father, to nuzzle or hug her, something to tell her through her crying that he was there if she needed, but stopped himself at first, just to then lean in and hug her, pushing her to him. He had seen what she said as time went by with this tension since after he tried to talk with her and Eric about the creature. He had talked with Dark as well, and even the dark type thought the same of himself. Few things came to his mind that he could tell to her, but… he felt like any of those wouldn't do any good at the moment, so he just stood there, letting her cry as he waited for her to calm down, hugging the Eevee how he could.

Once she calmed down enough he separated a bit from her and looked at her in the eyes. "You feeling better?" He asked and once she answered he talked. "I've seen for myself what you're talking about, Elly. But even then I don't think that Lucy hates you. I mean, she's your best friend, right? Have you talked to her about this?" He asked her gently, laying down on the steps.

She did appreciate the effort he had made, but she understood… there was just nothing he could say that could help her. However, the fact that she had opened up and said all of that was what made Lucy listen to her thoughts, and the Shinx approached. "What are you saying?!" She shouted, approaching the two, the Eevee looking at her friend. "Elly… I don't hate you! Far from it! If there's anyone I hate is myself, for letting Zed go alone to that… whatever the fuck that whole thing was…" She glares at Hadrim, as if daring him to criticize her for swearing at a time like that. He didn't say anything, leaving her to express herself. "And also angry at Zed for… you know, going and getting himself involved like that… But asides from that, it's mainly just annoyance or people I don't really want to talk to." She says as she looks down the stairs to stick her tongue out at Nox who simply turns around and walks away, muttering something.

"So… you're saying that I'm blowing this all way out of proportion?"

"Of course you aren't. It's… it's still been a huge hit for me, to see Zed like this… but he's trying to stay positive and cheer me on, and it's been working as of late… However, when I see you, I do get angry at Eric… He's just been neglecting you, and been a prick all this time… I don't know what's gotten into him." Lucy said, scowling and probably swearing up a storm instead of chatting, since it seemed that only profanities were leaving her mouth.

However, her words really got Elly thinking: Had something else happened that she hadn't realized? She, to some degree, could understand why the Riolu was being so dedicated to training, because she knew him better than anyone: he hated the feeling of being weak, of losing a fight and letting others be hurt because of it. But this reaction was just… completely exaggerated, she didn't know why.

Lucy couldn't care in the slightest. She got up from the ground, now angry. "Alright, I've decided: I'm going to go talk with him myself." Elly looked at her and tried to get up to complain, but the Shinx stopped her. "You're in no condition to go talk with him Elly: you're way too hurt over what he's doing to you, but at the same time, you can't bring yourself to speaking to him in a simple and clear way. So I'll do it, ok?" The electric type seemed determined, and to be honest, Elly just didn't have the strength to try and stand against her.

"Just please… don't worsen things please…" She pleaded, and even though she though her words fell on deaf ears, it wasn't the case. Lucy didn't say anything however, and instead left through the kitchen door and towards the forest. It didn't take her long to reach the clearing where Eric and Jake had been training… or rather she was hearing Eric howling from half a mile away. As she came up to the clearing, she saw what type of training he was subjecting himself to: Jake had set up various ropes, from the which were hanging longs that kept swinging back and forth as the Sneasel commanded, standing behind the tree lines.

Eric was standing in the middle of all of it, turning around and punching whatever got close. He was training his reflexes, probably trying to train himself to counter that thing's ability to teleport on the spot… But she had seen it, and she didn't think it was enough.

"With how much you're screaming and howling people could get the wrong idea pretty easily, you know?" She taunted from the edge of the clearing, Eric glancing at her for just a second and then moving lightning quick as he punched the logs away, all of them coming at him at the same time. His fists were like bullets, and ended up breaking the second to last one in half, but the last hit him in the back of the head, knocking him forward. He growled in annoyance, then looked at Jake, who was already approaching to inspect the broken log, then looked at Lucy.

"What do you want? I'm busy." He almost growled. Jake shot him a look, then at Lucy: he knew what she was here to say, and in a surprising turn of events, didn't say anything else, and instead turned around and walked out of sight, leaving the two of them to speak.

"Oh yeah, too busy neglecting Elly." She basically spat on his face.

He didn't know what to answer for a second, then sighed. "Great, now I've got you trying to jump down my throat too… I don't have time for t-"

"You don't have time for Elly, who was crying a few minutes ago?!" He stops and bites his lip, then looks at her, really surprised. "Yeah, you heard me right, you selfish prick. Look, I get it: I'm **unbearable** when I'm angry, ok? But at least I don't ignore my friends and mate when I'm angry. If I'm angry with someone I'm just angry with them, and that's it, but I don't make others pay the price!"

"You really don't know what you're talking about right now Lucy, just back off… You've got enough on your plate with Zed…"

"And what am I supposed to do?! Stand still as I watch my best friend crying on the steps! Hadrim had to console her because you weren't there! You two are sappy as all hell when you're together, and it's kind of annoying. Ok, but you're doing the entire opposite thing, Eric! And it's weird, and it doesn't make sense, and it's really… and I mean, **really** getting to Elly." Her voice cracks at the very end. Even though she and Eric didn't get along very well, he was her mate's best friend, and also her best friend's mate… so he was basically like family at that point… then again, they always said that Team Star was a "big family of outcasts".

Eric didn't know what to say, but couldn't bear to look at the Shinx's face. "It's… not just that… I've failed in every possible way."

"Oh, cut the tauroscrap Eric! Zed is being more positive than you are, and he got his god damn front paws cut down to the bone! And it really, **really** makes me angry when he says this… But he says it was neither your fault nor Dark's."

Eric smirks. "Pche…" He chuckles lightly, shaking his head. "That's Zed… too good and kind for his own good… Dark was the one that dragged us out there and separated us. Had he stayed in home The Pursuer wouldn't have found him, **and** if it had kept on looking for us and found the Kaiser household, he would've found all seven of us ready to fight, plus whoever from the Kaisers who wanted to join… It was his fault. You and I both agree to disagree with Zed on that, right? Well, I also disagree when he says it wasn't MY fault… I failed to help him from all that…" He remembered the blood curling scream that Zed had made as he was hit, a scream that Lucy also had heard.

However, she also had something to say, walking towards him and yanking his arm forward with her teeth with no care, making him look at it. "Your arms were incredibly fucked up after that fight. You could barely lift a spoon, and Elly had to keep feeding you. I saw that with my own two eyes." Eric huffs and folds his arms again, looking away.

"I was weak…"

"And you're trying to get stronger so that they don't get hurt again, yada yada yada, tell me a story I don't already know from memory, you jackass."

"There's no need for you call me-"

"Jackass, dickhead, goddamn narrow-minded, nim-witted, thick-skulled stupid and downright despicable excuse for a mate, you **absolute bastard!** " Her stream of insults and swears effectively silenced Eric as she shouted them in his face at high speeds. When she was done she was panting, and the Riolu was speechless.

"Wow…" He could simply muster, a grin sneaking up on the Shinx.

"And I've got even more where those came from… so now tell me something I don't Eric… such as for example, but not exclusively: Why are you ignoring Elly like this?" The Riolu didn't answer for a long time, instead looking back and forth between her and the ground, clearly unsure. "Well?" She pressed on.

He sighed. "Well… I'm not avoiding her because I hate her… it's just that I'm disgusted at myself. I got… way too confident. After Blake, everything that happened and… surviving the Distortion World like I did, I felt like… There was just no fight I could lose, that I could do my job and guarantee that everyone would go back home unscathed even if the mission was incredibly difficult. Our most recent streak with missions had convinced me so, and when The Pursuer showed up for the first time, back in Horn Mountain… I just didn't think much of him. He was dangerous, or at least seemed so, but probably because he had gotten the jump on us, it couldn't happen again… That's why I set up the whole "night guard" thing that Dark and all of the Kaiser hated so much and found unnecessary… And what I feared most ended up happening."

"After the fight I felt… utterly defeated. Even if I had survived the fight, two of my best friends and companions were heavily wounded, the enemy had escaped, and I fainted not too long afterwards. After I woke up, the only thing I could think of was avenging them. That bubble I had been living in had been violently popped, and now I saw that I got way too confident. I wouldn't let that happen again however, and I guess I neglected Elly because of that… she knows, just as well as I do, that I got confident and paid the price, and if I couldn't stand the sight of me… then she probably couldn't either. I wanted to get stronger to prevent her from getting hurt… and I guess I just lost sight of what was really important."

The silence that hung in the air after Eric was done "explaining" himself only lasted fifteen seconds, but eventually Lucy broke it when her fur started crackling with electricity… and blasted him with a bolt of electricity that was quite painful, making him howl. "That one's for being such an idiot!" She blasted him again. "And that's for making Elly and everyone else in the team worry so much about you, including myself!" She stopped for just a few seconds, but then blasted him with another one.

" **Aaaagh!** What… what was that last one for?!" He questioned, getting tired of being zapped like this., although he admitted that it had been a long time coming.

"I… I don't know! But you deserved it as well!" She screamed, both of them standing still for a few seconds before she finally started chuckling. "Alright… look… you need to go back to Elly… she's probably still sobbing, and… Look, about Zed. He's been drilling the fact that you had nothing to do with it into my head, and you were just as hurt as he was." She put a paw on his shoulder. "You can't carry the weight of the entire team on your shoulders, that's not your job as a leader, you moron… You're supposed to be what brings us all together, and you do that… most of the time, at least." He glared at her, but smiles and sighs.

"Yeah, I guess you're right… but you know how I am… trying to protect everyone because I think I'm invincible… I'm not." He stands up, shaking off some dirt from the former shocking the Shinx had given him. "But… I'm sorry for having put you all through this... I couldn't think straight, and I was scared of the consequences… I apologize." She rolls her eyes, accepting his apology somewhat, and as they were finally getting ready to go back to the house, Jake came out from the trees, clapping.

"Brilliant… That was quite an emotional show, Lucy… You somehow did what I had wanted to do for so long with a much more… emotional language than mine."

His words were truthful, but there was irony in them too, and the Shinx was the quickest to respond. "Alright, of course you'd be the only person that would make a compliment sound like an insult…" She snarled, and Eric rolled his eyes.

"Perhaps… However, instead of discussing this, we should return to the house immediately, if we are to try and solve the rupture that has been created between Eric and Elly." As they started heading back however, Jake felt as if it necessary to point some things out about Eric's apology. "I must say, your words felt… prepared. Have you, per chance, been preparing to apologize?"

"Yeah… If I have you be honest, I noticed that I was ignoring her like this and I knew that sooner or later I would have to apologize… So yeah, some of what I said I had already planned in advance, most I just answered as you were scolding me…" Lucy smirked.

"I guess I also need to apologize… half of the time I was just angry at myself for letting Zed go like that and I made you guys pay for it. I guess that's what really got Elly like that… Man, I need to work on my people skills." Eric chuckled, and Jake couldn't help but smirk the moment he noticed that neither of them were looking at him, but they both went back to being serious as they approach the house, and the Riolu knew that he was going to have to explain his actions.

* * *

Back at the house, Hadrim stayed by Elly the whole time, chatting with her and trying to get her to laugh once she seemed calm enough, telling some little anecdotes about himself, Luca or their children. Shade, who had been going up and down, stopped and greeted Elly, worrying for her as she saw the mark of tears on her face until she was told that it was nothing. It was then when Shade sat down by her friend and her father, letting out a deep sigh. "Dark and Dust are really making my Wish be strong." She said and looked at Elly. "Rad told me you were there this morning while they trained, so you know to what point they've taken it, right? Well, it's been like that since that day. At least Dark can… sleep if you can call it that while he's knocked out because during the night he can't even with his pill and spends it down in the garage with… whatever the hell he's doing again in there." The Shiny Eevee said.

She had seen the Zoroark's routine a few times and it never changed. Train with Dust all morning, eat at lunch with barely any appetite and from there spend the rest of the day closed in the garage. Last night she could hear Natalie and him arguing about this, it ended with the younger Eevee left alone crying on the bed while he went back down. Radius this time spent the night with her. "Dust says… he's seen a shadow in Dark's aura since that day. He says that shadow is how guilty Dark feels. Last night I heard him say to Nat something about not being able to look at anyone in the eyes anymore after what happened. That he came out without a scratch and it felt like he had a wound in the chest… He said that if my mother hadn't had to push him she could have gotten away from that thing, so it was his fault she ended like that, that they had to go out for him. I think we all share that it was his fault to go out that night." She stopped at this point and sighed, not wanting to get into that topic again. "It's the first time I see him leaving Natalie to cry alone. Rad had to console her and when I went to Dark to confront him, he was plain out pathetic and broken. I managed to talk to him but he just wouldn't look at me for more than a second as we talked. He said that he's sorry but that an apology wouldn't cut it, he kept blaming himself for everything that happened that night, to Zed, to Serge, to my mother and to Eric. Basically he thinks all that's happened since then is his fault. He's been trying to get stronger so if there is a next time he can actually help, or so he told me. Then again that kind of training is too much in my opinion." Shade ended. She really needed to get that out of her, and her father being there helped her do it, since she wanted to tell it to Elly or someone from the Team. The Eevee was starting to cry as well, Hadrim leant to her and nuzzled his daughter to then lick the tears off of her face, something he didn't dare to do with Elly since it might have been pushing her trust towards him maybe a bit too much. "And Natalie… they only have each other as family here and after seeing them so close together for months, now this has them almost turning on each other... It hurts." She said.

"Radius has been down as well." This time it was Luna the one to talk. The Vulpix had been listening for a time around the corner of the stairway, hearing almost everything, now showing herself. "Partially because of Dark seems to be closing up to everyone and because of Natalie being so sad, and on the other side he's worried for Luca even if she's getting better. But you know what I mean, right? Natalie hasn't move from the couch at the living room all day and since he came back with Dark and Dust, and he's been going to and fro to check on his crush and his mother and up and down to check on Zed and Serge and Dark and Dust." She dared to add that joke about Nat being the Jolteon's crush to try and lighten the mood, tho it wasn't the best place to put one.

Elly nodded with all that she was told, all of this information weighting down on her heavily: this was the result of that fight, a fight that they may have survived physically but lost psychologically. Jake had been picking up any type of information from those who had fought it to build a psychological profile, as well as adapt to it's fighting style, one of the many reasons why this enemy was so intimidating. However, her thoughts were interrupted as she heard Lucy's rather distinguishable voice booming from downstairs, and Eric soon followed after, running after the Shinx and coming up the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the Eevee, and the normal type looking down at him.

There was a moment of silence in the house, not a soul daring to say anything, and Eric felt everyone's eyes falling directly on him. He was being judged. And heavily, he might add. "Hello… Everyone…" He simply greeted, not daring to take a step up those stairs and towards Elly. "I… know I have a lot of things to explain and apologize for… So I'm going to try to come out clean on this: I really don't know what the hell I was doing. When I woke up, the only thing I could think of was how much of an idiot I was, but getting so overconfident in my abilities. I should've been more careful…" He looked at Hadrim. "I should've properly warned you of what was coming… but I didn't, because I thought we could take him on easily… and I was wrong."

"I know that you all have lost some faith or trust in me… it's only natural… and some of you might not even like me anymore, but… I just want to apologize for having been ignoring you all and focusing on training alone when I realized that… I should be training with everyone and getting you all ready for what's to come, and not thinking that this is my responsibility… So I'm sorry for doubting you and trying to cast you aside in a selfish attempt to keep you safe, and yet at the same time endangering my life…" This comment was obviously aimed to all members of Team Star, the entirety of the team watching him from either the bottom of the stairs or from the door to a room. "And hiding the truth from you all and considering you not companions and friends, but instead either defenseless pokémon... or a burden." He bowed, having finally spoken his heart out, then looks at Elly, who is looking at him with teary eyes.

"I remember someone saying, and I quote: 'Apologizing doesn't undo what you did, imbecile!'. You males and your stupid pride." Luna said simply and looked away from him letting out a "humpf" as she did. She knew who she was talking about and to whom those words went. Hadrim on other side just stood looking at them all for a moment, Shade was looking at Eric with a different look.

"We might be weak, but everyone can improve, you know?" She said to him, for once talking with a firm tone.

"Hey bro. On my case don't worry about it, not much hard feelings. But try to think that others can also pull their weight most of the time." Surprisingly, Dust talked from the bottom of the stairs, looking up at them, the cut over his eye patched and with his almost trademark careless smile plastered on his muzzle.

"Just… I'm sorry, ok? I didn't know how to handle that situation and it got out of control for me. Just being defeated like that triggered something in me, and I wanted to do anything possible to prevent this from ever happening. I'm sorry." He apologized again, though this time he was just looking at Elly, who was slowly stepping down towards him.

"I… It's ok… I know that you mean to do well, but please… Next time to try to consider all of us as friends and allies, not as burdens. We're your friends, and all of us are together in this, and what to help you and defeat that… thing, as much as you do." Elly reminded him, voicing everyone's opinions, and the fighting type nods, getting teary eyed, before trying to wrap his arms around her… but she shot him a look that stopped him on his feet.

"I'm sorry I ignored you like this… It must've been horrible, and I didn't realize… God, what kind of mate am I…"

"The one that I have and that I'm happy with. You've got your faults, like everyone else. I know you meant well, I told you… so from this point onward I want you to help everyone improve, and they, in turn, will help you improve." She knowingly said, and the Riolu nods in her embrace. There's a few minutes of silence, before Serge coughs.

"So then, Eric's back to being normal and not an asshole?" The Pidgeot asked, and the Riolu gave him an amused look and nods. Immediately afterwards, him, Nox and Zed broke into cheering… really loudly. "Finally! I was getting sick of this climate of consternation and dissatisfaction! Good grief!" Nox nodded besides him.

"You can't believe how tense it was starting to get guys… Glad that's finally over at the very least, though now I want a break from all of this action and shit." The Houndour swore, and everyone pointed it out to him, Emily chiming in with her trademark "Swear jar!" comment.

"I agree with both… we may be physically recovered, but many of us are psychologically spent and exhausted. We need to find a way to unwind and relax without having the threat of this… Pursuer breathing down our necks." Zed points out, and there's an unanimous agreement from everyone in the household, including Eric, who also admits that he had quite a headache, but also felt like a weight had been lifted.

"Now if all is settled, why don't we all go have something to eat? I've made something today that I hope you like." Hadrim said to them all as he stood from where he was laying down. As he suggested, Eric leaned in closer to Elly and whispers something into her ear, then pointed upwards, and the Eevee looked at him and nods, said something, and they parted ways: The Eevee going up the stairs and the Riolu to the kitchen.

"Hey, Had, can you give me two bowls? Elly and I are going to eat somewhere else." He asks once he's in the kitchen, grabbing on the table so that at least his head is visible from the slightly taller table.

Hadrim filled two bowls and handled them to him with his psychic. "Here you go. I hope you like it." He says. The Riolu thanked him and smieds, feeling much better than before, and came across his companions. "I'm telling you, I'll finish up faster than any of you!" Nox proclaims as he, Serge, Zed, Lucy and Luna go into the kitchen.

"Pffft, yeah right… I'm the fastest one in the team, Nox! Remember?" Lucy responds, smiling and giving him a superior smirk.

"How do you expect to not crush a female when you mount her if you eat so much? Oh wait! You won't get a female if you keep thinking with what hangs between your back legs." Luna said to the Houndour, and her snark was followed by "Ooooooh!" and "Savage!" sounds from Serge and Zed, who, since he was among friends and wasn't the centre of attention, felt free to laugh.

"Damn straight, sister!" The Shinx raised a paw, the Vulpix answered the same way and high pawed the Shinx, to Nox's dismay and annoyance, continuing the discussion and swearing he'd eat the whole pot while Serge started teasing Zed about the "savage" comment. Finally, they all stopped shouting and screaming as Jake and Hadirm call for some peace and quiet, and the conversation topics swiftly changed.

"Hey, Eric, where you going?" The Pidgeot casually asked as he breezed by with two food bowls in his paws.

"The roof. Elly's waiting for me there." Zed couldn't help but look at him weird, but shrugged.

"Alright, you two have fun up there… we're just going to eat in the kitchen like normal pokémon do…" Eric laughs and let the limping Zorua go into the kitchen, followed by Lucy's complaints about him walking around, Eric already picturing poor Zed becoming a ball of black fur as he was brought into the spotlight by the irate Shinx.

Hadrim before putting anything for himself, after everyone was served, put some food into a bowl and went to the living room. Clara was watching her serie while enjoying a plate of the mac n' cheese and Ichiro was sitting besides Nat. Seeing the Espeon, the human boy rose and went to the kitchen, waving at everyone with a smile and getting food for himself. Meanwhile, Hadrim approached the pet bed to try and talk with the little Eevee. "Hey… Are you okay?" He asked her.

Natalie looked at him with a tired face, with recently cleaned tear trails coming from her eyes. The Eevee didn't say anything and curled a bit more. He sighed patiently and sat by her. "Come on, we've been in this situation before, Nat, you know I'll listen." He said calmly and warmly. He didn't need to press much to make her pour it all out, with a surprisingly controlled voice. He stood there and listened to her worries and what's been upsetting her. It was what he thought. He waited patiently for her and listened everything. He offered to talk with Dark when he woke up and if needed smash some sense into that thick skull of his. That for some reason made her laugh slightly and also put her slightly at ease, a least, enough for her stomach to ask for the food she was smelling. Had took Nat to the kitchen and left her plate on a free spot by Shade, who greeted the smaller Eevee and nuzzled her a bit seeing her up and hungry. Nat smiled more for this. "Sorry for being so down lately." She said to the shiny Eevee.

"Don't be. We were all on edge." The Shiny said. "Now dig in before it gets cold!" She said and dived back to her bowl, Natalie giggling and doing that, much more calmly than the silver furred.

* * *

Elly was staring out into the forest and the blue sky while she waited for Eric to arrive, and sure enough, a few minutes after she got up on the roof, he came out of the window and climbed up carefully, showing her the bowls and the spoons so she grabbed them. "This place is pretty… and we're all alone here. This was a great idea." She said, handing him a bowl and a spoon once he was up there.

He grabbed them and sat down right besides her. "Glad you like it" He kisses her cheek. "I knew that sitting like this would make you happy… staying home all day just feels so wrong, doesn't it?"

"You are always saying that, even at home, you workaholic." Elly giggleed when she sees Eric rolled his eyes at this remark.

"Alright, alright, I guess you're right about that one… Anyways, it's nice to eat out in the open for once, doesn't it? Reminds me of when we're on a mission and we make a stop at a cliff or something…"

"And I have to pull out our cooking stuff and cook up something because you're a disaster in the kitchen"

He elbowed her with a smile. "Hey, at least I can cook pasta."

She gasped. "Because pasta is the simplest thing you can do!"

"Hey, at least I'm not as horrible as Lucy is." They both laugh in edunison, their laughter resonating in the air as they leaned on eachother to support themselves. "Remember that one time she pulled out the noodles and they just fell apart because she had overcooked them?" They roared with laughter.

"Oh yeah… I even remember the face she made: it was incredible." She imitated it best she could from memory: a mixture of disgust as she saw how the overcooked spaguetti writhed on the water like a pack of worms and surprise, because she actually thought that keeping the noodles in the boiling water for fifty minutes straight was acceptable. "And that one time she put too much black pepper in the stew and we were all running around from his spicy it was?"

"Oh gosh that one wasn't fun at all. I had a massive stomach ache after that… In fact we all did, including her!" They laughed. "That was the last time she ever cooked… and the world's been a better world ever since."

She playfully punched his elbow, and made him scream as he almost lost grip of his food. "True enough… Though you know she did with good intentions and didn't mean it. Now let's see here…" Elly opened her mouth and took a spoonful of Hadrim's cooking. "Mmmmhh! This is quite good! I like the mix of the cheese and the berries! We have to get the recipe for this." She said, and Eric tried it too.

"Oh yeah, that's the good stuff… But I think the cheese is too strong, I'd rather taste the berries more than the cheese…"

"No way, this is perfect. Besides, it's Mac and Cheese, from what he said, not 'Mac and Berries with some cheese', you dummy." He smiled and they both ate in relative peace, exchanging a few comments and remarks every so often, laughing or chuckling together while observing the sky. Once they were done, they left the bowls aside and laid down next to eachother, looking at the clouds and their shapes.

They go for a few minutes without saying anything, just enjoying the peace and quiet, until Eric sighed and broke the silence. "I really can't take it like this… It just doesn't feel right that I was ignoring you so much two hours ago and here we are, as if nothing had happened."

Elly got up and frowned. "Well… what did you expect? For me to be angry at you? I told you that I understood, to some extent, why you did it… and you weren't constantly ignoring me for a whole month, really, you paid attention to me and came to my side whenever I called you. It's just that today it all came crashing down on me and couldn't do anything to stop it. You admitted to being wrong about what you were doing and how you were doing it, and as long as you don't do it again, I won't get mad, because I trust that you'll learn from your mistakes. Getting mad at you would've simply elongated the problem, and besides, you know I'm not a drama queen." She laid back down on her side, looking at him.

He sighed as she gave her reasonings. "I know, but it still feels wrong…" She turned to face away from him

"Just… drop it, ok? Stop thinking about it and let's continue on with our lives. I'm not exactly thrilled either really… to be honest I still don't feel ok. I feel sad, and kind of angry, because you still hurt me, and you knew you were doing so. If anything, I'm just… frustrated with you, but you've showed me time and time again that you can learn from your wrong doings, so I'm willing to relax a bit and give you another chance without blowing up in your face-"

"Because we didn't want to continue this conversation in front of everyone, did we?"

"Basically…" She sighed and gets up. "Ok, since we're both being bothered by this, let's just talk this out: I'm not ok with what you did Eric, not at all. The reaction you had was completely illogical, shutting yourself away like that… As I said, it was mostly annoyance and frustation what I felt, because… after all we have gone through, you still just felt inclined to do everything on your own. And that, **that** , was what hurt me so much and made me so angry. " He opens his mouth to reply, but she shakes her head. "Not even going to listen to you, because you know I'm right: It's just stupid, Eric. You were being a moron by doing things this way. I can already guess that you felt inclined to do it like this because you're the leader of the team, and you feel the necessity to protect us… but we already know how to protect ourselves, and you can't do everything on your own. I just… don't want to see you crashing down like this again." This last phrase she managed to stutter out, the Riolu silently looking at her and nodding when she said something he agreed with… which so far, had been everything.

"And lastly… Why? What were you hoping to achieve by shoving all of us away? Just so that in case you died we wouldn't feel as horrible or something?" He looks at her, and that single look tells him all she needs to know, groaning. "For the love of… Eric!" Now she was just getting angry. "Do you really not have any better ideas?! What were you thinking?!"

"I don't know, ok?! I was in a panic… it was the first time in almost a year since we had come across someone like that… and I told you all, I beat Blake, and I got cocky… Honestly, I didn't know how to react, and I guess I just did the first thing that came to mind, training. I noticed that it was a bad idea the second day, maybe the third, but at that point I guess I was just… scared of the retribution for all of that."

"And so you kept going with it because you were scared that I was going to shout at you? Well.. I am now, either way! I wasn't expecting something so… cowardly from you, Eric." This last comment hit home extremely hard, and Elly saw it in his eyes.

"Yes… it's true… But… there's another thing. And it's something that I hadn't realized up until this moment. And it has to do with the Pursuer: I think… I've met him before." Elly looked at him, extremely confused.

"What do you mean? Where and when?"

"I… I didn't remember it before." He bit his lip. "But… You know the nightmare I keep having?"

Elly's ears flopped down, sticking to the sides of her head as she thought for a bit. "The… one with the vortex?"

"Yes, the one from the Distortion world, where I am always looking into it as the world is being destroyed…" His body trembled, and Elly could see the look in his eyes, like an innocent kid who had found themselves in the middle of a massacre.

"Yeah, I know which one you mean… I remember you waking up in a cold sweat the first days after you came back to me… Do you still have it?" She asked, slightly concerned.

"A better question is if I'll ever stop having it... But anyways, after the fight, I had it again… and I remembered something: Right before I was cornered by Blake and had to… you know." He trailed off, letting Elly piece it together, which she does and signifies him with a nod. "Right before that, I remembered seeing someone there as well." Her eyes widen.

"Wait… what? Are you sure?"

"Absolutely… they even turned around, to face me… but I couldn't see their face because they were covered by this black as coal cloak that hid them completely... " He falls silent as he looks gravely at Elly, and she gasps as she connects the dots.

"Just like The Pursuer's! You think that…"

"It's the same guy. Yeah. And he somehow survived that chaos too… That's why I was so nervous: He's been there this whole time, and now he's back to kill us.. for some reason."

Elly sits on the roof and crosses her front paws in front of her, sort of mimicking the way Jake sat down to think, which Eric found sort of cute. "He may have come to finish the job…"

"I don't think so: He could've killed me right then and there, in that place, since I was all alone… but even then, he saved my life in the end: he told me that Blake was approaching from behind and basically saved me from being backstabbed." That last revelation makes all of Elly's theories crumble.

"Then I don't get it. At all." She sentences, and they both stay silent for a couple minutes.

"I know this still doesn't change anything, but… I just thought you should know why I freaked out so badly. It's not the most important reason, but it's one of them." His explanations make Elly sigh.

"Yeah you're right, it doesn't excuse anything, but… Eric, look… Just don't do it ever again, and think with you head, and I'm pretty sure we'll all just forget about this eventually, including me." He smiles, but she remains stern. "Ah, no no no, don't try to convince me with one your lovely smiles: you still messed up, mister, and I'm still angry with you… But much less than before." She said, and the Riolu looks at her and spreads his arms, looking at her expectantly. She sighs, rolls her eyes, and then smirks and falls into his arms. "Cheer up… You've got all of us to fall back on if you need help."

"I know… And I appreciate you all for it. I love you, Elly."

"Oh, I know that already, silly…" She giggles and they both stay there like that for a while, simply enjoying the breeze on their fur, feeling a lot better with eachtother. And after a bit, they decided to lay down on the roof and rest a little, and eventually fell asleep, Eric lying on his side while Elly was curled a little and facing him, both of them looking peaceful.

Ichiro was outside, enjoying Hadrim's food at the same time he took in some fresh air. At some point, the human looked up, seeing them there and couldn't help but smile. Fishing in his pocket he took his pokenav, turned on the camera, aimed, played a bit with the zoom and snapped a photo of them both, it was just too nice to let it pass, and it was one more photo for his growing gallery of Pokémon photography.

* * *

Back in the kitchen, most of them had finished eating and where having some calm chat. Dust worrying about Serge's and Zed's state while Luna asked Nat how was she feeling. When she was about to answer, Dark came into the kitchen, without saying anything, few did see him but seeing him they didn't say anything just waved and he waved back as he went for a bit of water and got some food for himself.

Dust looked at the Zoroark. For some reason his fur seemed darker than usual, but he blamed it on his imagination and tried to ignore the feelings he was getting from the still downed Zoroark. Only one greeted him out loud, and he answered by waving again and a simple "Hey." And he went back to eating. In the end, he finished quickly and washed his things to then go out. He stopped as he stepped down the steps to the backyard and looked as his claws. Sighing, he just looked around. He couldn't stand it, not being able to look at his friends and sister in the eyes. He held back, putting his back straight and looking at the sky as he gasped a bit. The bags under his eyes betrayed the little rest he's been getting all this time.

He thought on what to do. He couldn't go to the town alone. Not again. But he just couldn't bring himself to ask anyone to go with him. Dust wanted to spend the afternoon with Emily for once, Radius was taking care of his mother with his father, Shade was making Natalie company along with Luna, and Natalie herself was upset with him.

The Zoroark started to walk around, picking up a basketball ball from the floor and starting bouncing it to keep occupied. After some bounces he looked for the basket and threw it. As usual, he missed and hit the wall, even then, he went for the ball and quickly threw it again. He did it a few times, trotting for the ball and throwing as fast as he picked it up, he missed all his throws, but it kept him busy and that's what he wanted. He didn't feel like training, nor battling, he just wanted to relax and this was helping him a lot on that.

In one of the throws he managed to make it, but by that point he was panting, even then it hasn't been very long since he started either. However, the ball stopped mid air after passing the ring and then floated towards Hadrim, who was sitting there, watching him. "I'd say you are having fun." He said to the Zoroark.

"Not much, just… trying to relax." Answered the dark fox, his tone more animated thanks to the exercise but he still couldn't look at him, at least until the Espeon called "Catch!" And almost hit him in the face with the ball.

"Dust had told me about your training. It's efficient but don't you think you are taking it too hard?" He asked. The dark type sighed and threw once more, failing this time. Hadrim jumping and catching the ball himself with his tail, and tried it himself, bouncing the ball near the basket and Dark catching it and bouncing it.

"I wasn't improving at all the other way. You… saw how that ended." He said, remembering Luca's state after that fight. Clara had to call a doctor to come and help the Lucario with her wounds. He threw again, and again missed, Hadrim running to catch it.

"If you are talking about the others being wounded. As far as I know, Luca doesn't blame you for her wounds. More so, she asked about you when she woke up. She got scared when I told her you were passed out until I could tell her it was only because you've been training with Dust." he said to him and threw. "I can't tell about the others. Why don't you ask them?"

Dark catches and throws quickly. "I can't even look at them straight to the eyes, let alone get words to apology to them. Not that that would mean anything at this point. Doesn't matter how sorry I am, an apology won't undo anything and would mean nothing." He said.

They took turns to talk by who got the ball with each throwing, if one of them didn't want to talk they just threw the ball in silence. "You should try and talk with them, it might take a weight off of you." Hadrim said, but then looked at Dark as the Zoroark stood still, not going for the ball. "Dark?" He called. The Zoroark however, didn't hear him, he had a paw on one of his ears as he felt them ringing, his vision started to get blurry and filled with coloured spots. Hadrim approached him, calling his name with worry as he saw the dark fox stumble forwards a bit. His body felt heavy and the younger Pokémon couldn't hold himself standing and fell down. There was no pain, he just fell and only an instant before, his eyes closed and he lost consciousness.

"Damnit!" The Espeon cursed as he checked him out. His breathing was slow and his pulse sounded weak. Had kept cursing but tried to keep calm. Even then he called for help to at least get him back to his room.

* * *

"Come on guys. Pick what you want. I got enough Poké for everyone, but think of the others." Ichiro said as he went into the sweets store and approached the ice cream fridge, leaving Dust, Radius, Elly and Lucy to go pick whatever sweets they wanted as he searched what he'd like to get. The human boy had decided to go buy some sweets for the house with some of them after Zed said that Dark had fainted out of tiredness, surely because of the intense training he and Dust kept and having barely, if any sleep at all, and Dust had been told that the training was over for the time being. The golden Riolu accepted without a word of protest. It was like taking a bit of fresh air for the human, and meanwhile, get a treat for everyone as well.

After Ichiro said those words, Dust immediately went towards the hard candies and started to pick them, filling a little plastic bag with them. Radius on his side decided to pick some black and white chocolate balls and some licorice of various flavours. Elly pondered about the red licorice, if anything for Eric, who had eaten all of them last time they'd both gotten sweets, and added some to the growing bag of gummies, chocolates and other types of sweets for the rest of the Team Star members. She looks at Ichiro. " _Hope we managed to get enough money for everyone…_ "

The human stopped looking for a moment to look at her and took his wallet, counting a bit his money, and trying not to seem like a weirdo that talks alone in the cashier's eyes. " _I've got like five hundred Poké. Even if you pick up ten kilograms I'll be able to pay it with these prices._ " He thought while lifting his eyes from his money to look at the Eevee in the eyes, hoping she heard him.

She giggles, but then falls silent and starts shaking her head. "Alright, everyone, please **not all at once!** " She shouts out loud, surprising basically everyone in the shop, then looks at Ichiro and gives him a sheepish smile. " _Sorry, everyone's trying to tell me what they want through telepathy… Anyways, it's the least Eric and I could do after taking away that bag… Spend it wisely though!"_ She says, and returns to picking up more sweets.

" _Don't worry about that. At least you ate it all and nothing went to waste._ " He chuckles as if he was recalling a funny joke.

"Excuse me. If your Eevee is going to throw another tantrum, I would have to ask you to make it wait outside." The Cashier woman said to him, and Ichiro scratched the back of his head for the scold.

"Sorry. She'll behave, right?" He said to Elly the last part, half joking but with a serious tone, if only to make the cashier think that he was scolding her for real.

She looks at the ground, but can't help but glare daggers at the cashier woman, not enjoying her rather despective tone.

" _Well look at what you've done now, the cashier and basically everyone in the shop is looking at me weird."_

" _Why?_ " Eric asked through telepathy, hearing Lucy chuckle through telepathy, but the deadly glare that Elly shot her was very much real, and so was the giggling that followed it.

" _Cuz she probably shouted out loud when we all started talking at the same time."_

" _Jeez, how'd you know, Nox? Maybe you're better than I am with psychic powers."_

" _Let's be honest here, if Nox had psychic powers he'd probably use them for some shady shit, like looking underneath every girl's tails."_ Serge chimes in, and immediately the conversation devolves into shouting.

" _Would not!"_

" _Yep."_

" _Yeah."_

" _Hell yeah he would."_

" _Affirmative."_

" _... I hate you all."_ The discussion kept going, but Elly sighed and cut it off there and kept picking sweets, until she comes across a machine with some sort of bended plastic or glass, which gives her quite a weird reflection of herself, her face being elongated, with the top looking thinner than the bottom. She stares at it for a couple seconds, moving her head up and down, giggling to herself.

"Hey, Lucy, come check this out!" She calls her best friend, and the Shinx dashes to her, kicking up some wind and looking at the same thing… and soon enough, they're both giggling as they're looking at their dumb reflections, having a blast.

"What's gotten into you two with the slush machine?" Dust asks them as their giggling has called his and Rad's attention, while Ichiro has decided on what ice cream he'll pick and now just waits for them to finish with their sweets.

"Leave them to have fun. I think is cute when they look like little kits, finding fun in every new things they find." Radius says, holding back some chuckles but smiling a bit, while Dust had to cover his sniggers with a paw.

Elly looks at them, blushing. "We've never seen something like this where we come from… it just looked funny."

"And don't call us kits! We're both older than you, so show some respect!"

"We know, Lucy. No need to let your electricity get all riled up and shock us." The Jolteon said approaching the machine and tilting his head a bit. "First time we came we spent an hour doing faces in front of this. Got out without sweets, tho." He chuckles and does one, opening his mouth as much as he can and letting his tongue fall while seeking a point where his reflexión would stretch his mouth in a way that it reaches the floor.

"However… that was when we were **kits**." Dust follows up, and the brothers chuckle to themselves, to the females' dismay and slight annoyance.

"Come on guys. If you are done, then come here so the cashier miss can weigh it." Ichiro calls them as he smiles seeing this scene. Radius going to him and, when Dust is alone, he puts a paw on his nose and pulls back, showing his fangs as his nose is scrunched up as a pig's as he bends towards the slush machine, making a face and chuckling to himself as he stops doing it and goes to the counter, barely missing the devious looks that Elly and Lucy were giving him. He left his sweets on top of the counter, the Cashier woman picks the bag up and weighs it, doing the same with everything and giving Ichiro a price, the human paying and then picking up a ten liters cup of vanilla and chocolate ice cream and taking it to the counter, asking for a bag to carry it as well. The human spent three hundred Poké on everything and as he carried the ice cream cup, Radius took the sweets bag in his mouth by the handlers.

Before they went out of the store, the Cashier stopped Ichiro and handled him some little cartoonish-looking cards. "This is a promotion. For every fifty poké you spent here you get an attempt at our "Lucky Seven's" game. With three Seven's you get a price of five thousand Poké, with all six Seven you get a fully paid vacation for you and all your family, including your Pokémon, in a hotel. You can exchange your prices in our web, just scan the QR code if you get something." She explains as Ichiro picks the six cards. "I wish you good luck." She says bowing slightly, offering a smile afterwards.

"Thank you." The human boy says to then go out with the four pokémon behind him. "You think we'll be lucky?" He asks them.

"Maybe. You never know." Dust answered putting his hands behind his head. They only had two bags to carry and Ichiro and Radius where carrying one each. As they were going back, Elly and Lucy just felt it was a necessity to get some payback on the two males.

"You know… looking back to that sweet store and the whole reflection thing… We saw a certain Riolu looking reaaaally dumb while he thought nobody was looking…" Elly seemingly points out, like dropping a random fact for no reason whatsoever.

Dust looks at them out of the corner of his eyes as his ears go straight up in a moment, not saying anything. "What was this Riolu doing?" Ichiro asked, if only to have some fun himself. Elly looks at Ichiro and smirks, before trying to replicate the face was doing as they caught him as best she could. It was a faithful replication, and it made Lucy laugh.

"Oh! The piggy face?" Ichiro chuckles a bit, as Dust starts to blush. "You know? I know of a Shiny Riolu that loves to do that face a lot, and sometimes asked me to come here just so he could laugh at his own piggy face." He says, the jackal taking his arms down as he hears this. "One time I got scolded for not buying anything and just go there to play. But he never loses the opportunity to do it."

"Shut it bro! There's no need for you to tell that!" Dust jumps, embarrassed upon remembering that day and the scolding he got from his parents afterwards. While Radius laughed as he could without letting go of the bag he was carrying. After a bit more time with teasing Dust about his faces, the females also finally came up with a way to tease Radius.

"And you…. you can't be that far off! He's your brother! C'mon Ichi, tell us something that Radius did!" The Eevee says, pleading for more embarrassment, Lucy looking at the Jolteon with a wide smirk, giving off the fact that it had been her idea.

"Radi?" The human asks as he thinks. Radius quickly going to him and pushing his leg as if asking him to not say anything. Ichiro looking at him with a smirk that said that he wasn't getting out of this. "Sometimes, he used to think that his own reflection was another Pokémon. He had a few months only. It was fun and cute seeing him arguing with himself about how rude it was to talk at the same time and saying the same thing that he was saying it." Ichiro said, making the Jolteon whine and push him again, now begging. "And then there was this time when we had to buy a new TV when he tried to "free the trapped people and pokémon" inside the box, thinking back to it now it was hilarious seeing him digging and asking for them… even if our money says otherwise." At this Radius desisted trying to ask the human to shut up, both young males embarrassed into silence and just walking, wanting the earth to swallow them, wishing to reach home already so they could hide in a hole and never come back out, while Elly and Lucy were too busy giggling or straight up laughing, getting so much dirt on the two males…

"Emily would **love** to get this info on Dust!" The bigger Eevee, said, her smile way too big for her not to feel some discomfort.

However, the Shinx's was actually bigger. "You know who would pay even **more** for this info on Rad though? Starts with an N~"

At that, Rad's ears perked up and he looked at her with a bit of a stare, not knowing why they had gotten to say that he likes Nat lately, and he simply doesn't ask, thinking they were just imagining things. However, his reaction said it all, and they both start giggling madly and screaming simultaneously, having way too much fun.

"I swear, bro. Imma get you back for this." Dust said to the human with a grumpy tone.

"You say that, then I invite you to something and there'll be no hard feelings, like ever." He chuckled.

Dust growled slightly but then sighed, the human knew him too well. "Meh. Whatever. You can't make us more embarrassed." He desisted, defeated.

"Is that a challenge?" Ichir chuckles.

"No!" Dust said quickly, shaking his arms and head. "Let's just… how much left 'til we get home!?" The Riolu asks.

"Just a bit more." The human answered while holding back his laugh.

Even then, the teasing didn't end there, and the both of them had to endure it until they reached the household. Ichiro having laughing heartily as he opened the door. "We're back!" he called as they got inside. Radius hurrying to leave the bag on the kitchen and then going upstairs, while Dust went to his room.

"Hey, champ. How was it?" Daniel asked as he was drinking a coffee and saw his son get into the kitchen and put the ice cream into the freezer.

"It went great. Got six "Lucky Sevens" cards as well to try our luck and see if we got paid vacations this summer." Ichiro said to then show the cards to him. "¨Here have one. We both know I shouldn't play this things." The boy adds, giving one to the older human and then giving four to Elly and Lucy. "Here one for each and the other two give them to whomever you want. You know how to play with these "scratch and win" cards, right?" He asked them.

Elly looks at him, looking at him weird. "I'm guessing it consists on us scratching the spaces and hoping we get lucky?"

"Heh, yeah. Sorry if I offended you." He says, standing up. "Well, good luck." He said to them with a smile as he went on check on Luca, while carrying the bag of sweets and the last card to give it to her so she could give it a try.

"Yeah, sure… we never win any of these anyways." As Elly said this, Eric brushed past her and swooped down to steal a kiss from her cheek. She blushed and looked at him, returning the affection with a nuzzle and then they chatted.

"How'd it go? Did you bring the licorice?"

"Yeees, we did. You'll get it later, thinking on taking a bath… want to join me?" There was a certain tone in her voice he couldn't deny, but he could tell it wasn't for **that**.

"Oh, you can count me in…"

The sound of someone gagging came from behind them, more specifically Lucy, and they both blushed. "Oh! Yeah, they gave us these tickets in the shop. Scratch 'n win, they called them. You might as well check this one…" He nodded, kissed her forehead and told her he'd be in the room with the others, then ran upstairs. Unbeknownst to them however, Elly had dropped another of the tickets.

"Oh, you came back already." From behind them comes Zed's voice, who is trying his hardest to walk around.

"Zed! What are you doing?!" Lucy suddenly screams, and the Eevee turns around to look at Zed, who was trying to walk around the lower level of the house to get his bearings again, and the Zorua had noticed the small ticket, leaned forward and picked it up with his maw, being careful to not hurt his legs in the process. "God damn it, don't do that, you're not healed up yet!"

Elly walked over to Zed and grabbed the missing card with her powers, thanking Zed. "I'm trying to get myself back on my feet again Lucy, don't worry… I know my own limits better than anyone, so I won't do anything rash." He assured her, but the Shinx was already angry with him, and the Eevee decided to leave and give the card to someone else, seeing as none of them would have any good use for it… There are constant screams from upstairs from three males, and then it was followed by one laughing and another complaining. She walked over to the stairs and looked for someone else, and on her way there she found Eric, who was walking around with the card she had given them.

"God damn cards! Now I have to give my berries to Jake!" Eric gave Elly the already scratched card. - Effing games… Does it really have to be Oran berries too?!"

"Yes, Oran berries!" The door opened and Jake came out. "Otherwise it will not be a true loss, right?" He pointed a finger at Eric menacingly. "When you make a bet, you're expected to risk something you care about a tiny bit, otherwise the bet truly holds no meaning!" He explained, and then turned to face inside of the room, his face going back to his normal expressionless form. "Is that how you wanted me to say it, Serge?"

"Yes! That's exactly it!" The Pidgeot was roaring with laughter for some reason, and nobody understood what those two were talking about, but Eric just groaned and walked down the stairs, flipping them off while scratching the side of his head, telling Elly he'd come back up with some Pecha berries for her too, which immediately brightens her mood. She headed to their room, but just before she got there, she passed by another room, where she could hear pokémon talking, and inside she saw Natalie and Luna chatting alone.

"Hey, how are you two doing?" Elly asks as she comes in, showing them the card. "Ichiro gave me one of these… but I really don't care about this sort of stuff, and Eric doesn't want to see one of these anytime soon… I think…" She wasn't sure about that last part, but given how annoyed the Riolu looked, proposing to make him scratch another of those was not an option, and she didn't trust Serge one bit, Jake probably wouldn't care and Nox was nowhere to be seen.

Both females turned to look at the incoming Eevee and greet her as well with smiles, thought Natalie's, if still sincere, took her a bit more of work to muster. "You know, here trying to relax about… everything really." Natalie said to the first part.

"Why not? Might as well get surprised." Luna said to the second and took the card and started to scratch it.

"What about you? Are you spreading the sweets or plan on having them all only for you and Eric?" Nat dares to make a joke, if only to have a bit more of a laugh herself. "Ok, jokes aside. Did anything funny happened?" She asked. Elly thinks about it for a second, and decides to retell the story Ichiro had told them about Rad.

Luna couldn't help but break out laughing for that. "My Arceus that's so stupid!" She let out, laughing hard, Natalie giggling for the story.

"Well, he was a kit. And I find it cute." She says with a smile fixed on her muzzle after having laugh so hard herself.

"Oooohohohoho. You hear that, Elly? I think someone has a crush on a certain orange Jolteon." Luna teases, and Natalie immediately goes scarlet red on the face.

"What are you saying? Of course I don't have a crush on Radius!" The youngest Eevee answers, leaving almost no time for Elly to answer Luna first, the Vulpix smirking at her since she didn't say any name, thought it was clear who she was talking about.

"You know, if I was Lucy or Nox… or Serge, even though he's creepy like that… but anyways, if I was any of the above… Or Eric if he's in a playful mood… Oh, you know what: if I was someone else with this information I'd be teasing you **so bad** that your cheeks would look like Luna's fur. However, I'm someone who was respect for others' privacy, but I'm still going to say it: you're head over heels for him, and no amount of self convincing arguments is going to fix that." She gave her the facts straight, having seen, and regretfully **lived** through a situation like this when she and Eric first realized their feelings for eachother… an occasion neither of them looked back to for… very good reason. Just thinking of that game of cat and mice that had been their first nervous attempts at romance was enough to make her internally cringe, getting a taste of how the rest of the team felt each time they talked sweetly in front of everyone.

"Why is everyone lately saying that!?" Nat groaned, still blushing hard. "You've been trying to tease Rad with that a lot and now you try with me! What's making you all think that either he or I have a crush on each other?" She asked.

"Well… I'm going to channel my inner Jake, as Nox likes to put it: the reactions you have when you talk about this topic are completely unnatural and exaggerated, you blush every single time he talks to you and shy away or look down whenever he's near, you stutter when trying to talk with him and become a mess of nervousness and sooner or later the conversation topic with any other female are reduced to Radius **or** what our own experiences were and some loose tips that you try to get out of us, more experienced members of the same gender, while you think to yourself that we were born yesterday and can't see the signs." Elly finishes her long stream of words and deductions… feeling fairly accomplished with herself. Jake was efficient and all, but he just got on everyone's nerves from time to time.

"That and come on, you really find cute instead of funny and ridiculous what our Jake's reflected image in female Eevee form friend told us? Come on, sis, you were smiling like… um… You had the biggest stupid smile I've ever seen the whole time!" Luna added. "Also, Elly. It's **very** creepy when you imitate Jake since at least I can't tell the difference except voice and gender." She said, directed to the older Eevee.

"She did have a **big smile** through all that too… Also, thanks for the compliment, Luna." She gives her a big, menacing toothy grin ala Jake, which sends shivers down Luna's spine. She had it down to a tee.

Natalie was now cowering her face with her ears to hid her red face, while with her paws she tried to get rid of the smile in her muzzle that came from her thinking about the Jolteon with all this situation.

"One question, Elly. What do I get if I scratch three sevens?" Luna asks her before she goes.

"Basically, if you uncover all the spaces and it's a row of sevens, hence the "seven sevens", sorry for the redundancy… If you unseven the sevens you will seven the seven the seven and thus be sevently sevented for seven millions of sevens…" She trails off, a funny look on her face, then shakes it, as if she was snapping out of a trance. "Sorry, too many numbers." She smiles.

"Someone seems to be in a joking mood this afternoon. That or you fell asleep talking. Either way I like it more than a lumping furball looming around the house." Luna commented.

"That, or I'm really good at faking it…" It was actually a mix of both: she felt much better than earlier, but she wasn't perfectly fine still, but she hid all of that behind some giggling, and she'd deal with her emotions later with a certain Riolu, who was at fault. "Anyways, so the point is that if you get three sevens in a single row, be it horizontal, diagonal or vertical, you win five thousand poké… but Eric grabbed one of them and scratched all the spaces and showed me that there wasn't a single seven on the thing, so it was rigged, probably the same with this one.

"So if I got six then I got ten thousand Poké?" She asks looking at her, the card she was scratching getting the big jackpot as all six spots had a seven in them. Natalie looking at it stunned out of words, still as a statue. However, neither of the females paid attention to her for the time being, as Elly was too distracted explaining it to Luna.

"No, listen: three sevens is five thousand, four is ten thousand, five is twenty thousand… and I think six sevens is like… a vacation trip?" She wasn't too sure about that last one.

"Well. I see… Six sevens here." The Vulpix said, pushing the card towards the blue eyed Eevee.

Elly stared at her funny, then went around and went to check the card. Then she checked it again. And again. And each time she checked her face shifted from mild amusement, to shock, then glee, then confusion, and then happiness as she rode a full rollercoaster of emotions, and a single realization dawned on her, and everything, somehow, made sense in her mind.

This was the card that Zed had touched.

Zed's luck was absurd.

"Um… you okay, Elly?" Natalie found her voice to ask seeing the faces the other was doing. Elly responded with a high pitched scream as she grabbed the card with her psychic powers and rushed out to the hallway, and then leaned over the railing of the stairs and shouted, waving the card around.

" **We hit the jackpoooot!** " She announced to everyone in the household, making Eric, who had just passed in front of the door, jump out of his skin, all of the berries flying up and scattering in the air as he expertly caught all of them on the plate once more and one last in his mouth, munching on it while he raises an eyebrow along with Nox, Serge and Jake, all three of which lean out of their room, organized in that order from top to bottom, and then Lucy, whose head snaps behind her to look at the Eevee. Meanwhile, Zed feels a cold sweat running down his back, and he knows, that back when he had picked up that card, he had made a fatal mistake.

Even Dust heard it from all the way down in the basement, Radius and Shade coming out of Ichiro's room as Natalie and Luna walked out of the room, the youngest Eevee closing the door so the last one inside can keep calmly sleeping. The Eevee repeated the message again, and Jake approached her to investigate… His eyes went wide open. "Impossible!"

That single exclamation was all everyone else needed to mob the Eevee, all of them getting a try at touching and looking at the winning ticket, and their reactions changed depending on her relationship with the Eevee: Nox pounced the Eevee and looked at the ticket from on top of her, Serge pushed the Houndour off and looked at it himself, almost crushing the poor normal type, Lucy dashed up the stairs and tackled her best friend, hugging her and wagging her tail, and Eric finally grabbed her from underneath them all then tossed her up in the air, celebrating it as she picked her up and then threw her up again and again, making her scream and shout in a mixture of fear and also excitement, before kissing her deeply on the lips.

"Everyone! Calm down! If we should thank someone, it should be Zed!" She announces, and the poor Zorua was already trying to crawl away downstairs, Clara giving the poor dark type some weird looks as he looked at her with pleading eyes.

From below, came the voice of the woman. "What's with the noise?" She asked, looking upwards. Her response was the mob of pokémon going downstairs and surrounding Zed, all of them having a go at the poor Zorua: hugging, kissing, nuzzling, patting, whispering, shouting, roaring, laughing, sobbing… And somehow they didn't break Zed's legs any further than they already were, probably because by the time they had gotten to him he had already crumpled up into a tiny ball of black fur, shivering and just taking in all of the affection and stimulation.

Clara let out some giggles for the situation and crouched down. "Come on, guys, let him breath." She said attempting to pick the poor ball of nerves and shyness up to try and save him from the mob of "fans" that was assaulting him. It works, as she somehow works her hands through that mess of feathers, fur, claws and paws as she pulls out the Zorua from that poképile, Lucy getting on top of Serge and trying to reach him. "You can pamper him all you want when you have calmed down a bit, ok?"She said to everyone, offering her arm to pick up Lucy too since she knows what's between this two. "Now what's all the fuss about?" She asks, holding him in her arms, being careful with his front legs.

Elly comes over to her, and carefully, **extremely carefully** , makes her way past everyone else on the ground and raises the ticket high enough so that both Clara and Zed could see it. Clara took the card carefully and read it, finding the prices and her face grew a big smile. "Well, would you see this? We've got fully paid vacations for this summer! Who bought this?" She asked them.

"It was me." Ichiro said peering out of Luca's and Hadrim's room with a licorice hanging from his muzzle that he quickly took away. "Actually, Elly, Lucy, Dust, Radius and I got six of those at the sweet store." The human boy said.

"And it was me who scratched it!" Luna said, pouting from above, sticking her head through the railing with a pout. "I can have my own luck, you know? It doesn't have to be his." She added, piecing it together and thinking they were praising him because of those jokes they usually made about his luck.

"What are you talking about?" Shade asked the Vulpix, but the fire type didn't answer.

"Zed has ridiculous luck. Every time we try and play anything that is purely based on chance and luck, he gets extremely lucky… but we never thought it could be to this degree!" Eric explains

"I don't deserve it… this luck… I hate my luck because I don't deserve it, I really don't! I hate all kinds of luck based things because they're just that, luck!" Everyone fell silent as he explains his reasoning. "Everyone has equal chances, but for some reason I always get lucky! I hate it! It makes me feel horrible, like I'm taking someone else's chances away!"

"Well it doesn't have to be your luck only. Besides if that was true you gave your chances to Elly, who in turn, gave them to Luna, who actually scratched the card." Natalie said from above. "But as Luna said it could have been her own luck." The youngest Eevee said calmly. Everyone stayed silent for a bit until Serge opened his beak.

"Whelp, if that's the case, I'll just cut this here…" He says, reaching for the ticket with his wing. There was an unanimous " **No!** ", and then the bird burst out in laughter, even though he actually had some attacks and fangs aimed directly at his face. His laughter got nervous. "Please don't put me in the oven, it was just a joke."

Clara got the ticket away from the wing upon seeing this. And Ichiro whistled at the reaction he saw. "I think I'm going to scan this before anything happens to it." He said, taking the card from his mother and got his Poke-nav, going back into the room. "Oh yeah, Elly, Eric. Here." He says and pass them the bag of sweets. "Could you spread the sweets for everyone?" He asked them, with basically all the household as witness that there was a big bag full of sweets for everyone. Even if they knew before, now it was reminded to them and the two wouldn't be able to sneak it away for themselves again. They looked at eachother and chuckled, and then decided to spread the sweets with everyone else in the house, as some sort of celebration for this incredible stroke of luck. It had been quite a crazy day for everyone… but they could all agree that it had ended better than they all expected, feeling those wounds that had been opened slowly healing.

* * *

 **Eric: Yaaaay, everything's back to normal now! And relaxation times ahead! What could possibly go wrong?!**

 **Ray: Don't jinx it bro… And not all is back to normal, sadly… But most of it is back that's true. We hope you enjoyed this, people, even if there weren't much moments for laughs and was more of a drama chapter… Seems I'm quite the drama queen huh?**

 **Eric: Hey, I'm the one that interrupted that moment between Eric and Elly briefly for even more discussions.**

 **Ray: I'm the one that has Dark still depressed over what happened and closing up on everyone.**

 **Whatever. There are still tensions to solve and healing to do, but hey! At least they do get a real break. Who wouldn't love to go on fully paid vacations to a hotel? Pool, beach, going out for nice walks, bowling, recreatives… dates… or plain out staying at the room lazing around! So much options!**

 **Everyone: *dreamy smile thinking on their vacations***

 **Ray: hehehe. What can I say… think about it yourselves and enjoy imagination!**

 **Eric: Anyways… we'll see how these vacations go in the next chapter. See you all then!**

 **Ray: Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**


	14. Chapter 13 - The Trip

**Eric: Whelp, finally we managed to release this chapter! Stuffs happened and I couldn't work on this chapter full time, but we managed to come to an agreement and we now are working purely on the English version… Which means that these chapters will come out much more quickly than normal, since we don't need to translate them!**

 **Ray: Besides… Seems like from my last writer's block that lasted for… a lot. Even here Eric had to scold me for not updating the story hehe, I lost readers, that and i only got one spanish reviewer… Well not gonna fall on sad stuff.**

 **Aside from Eric having stuff to do i also went on vacations for a few days and couldn't work on this story since I didn't have… galvanet where I went. And with the translation out of the way seems like we'll go back to long chapters hehehe. Now that this is settled, reviews, Eric?**

 **Eric: Yep, let's get to handle those: As always, West you're always missed. You should stay longer sometime. And yes, it was a brilliant and planned move to release the chapter on April 2nd instead of April 1st… because we're gods like that. ANYWAYS, the first half is depressing, yeah, but that's what it's meant to be: there's been a huge break up between the two groups and the characters, so they'll need to work quite hard to fix that new breach between them. And I'm glad you love those scenes in the second half, which are meant to show that, even with the depressing undertone, they gotta move forward and look onward.**

 **And yeah, sorry to say Alger, you're kinda unemotional at times… Not that there's anything wrong with that, sometimes it's better to have a cool head about things.**

 **Ray: Ask Jake about that hehe. Well Phil-Average Poch-PICHU! Damnit I'm an idiot today! Well Pichu. If we where to use the full names in Narration, with the amount of time that the names are said, at least on my side, it would get repetitive and… bothersome I think? to read. More so when also in the dialogs a character uses the full name. Alternating makes it more light.**

 **Besides, I try to make my narrator not seem like that ominous storytelling character, more like a character from the story. Basically I try to pull a closer to the reader narrator that tries to get some laughs with comments of its own from time to time. Someone has me holding back on Narrator's opinion and comments, tho. Yet I admit sometimes I make the Narration react as if it was in the same of the story it's narrating, like when a character throws an insult to another and the narration goes like: "Yeah, that's a good one". There are other times when it goes out of topic, wants to call someone something… not exactly pretty, and other examples that i'm not goin to put up because it would make this extremely long.**

 **Eric: Meanwhile, I try to keep it normal, because a narrator must be neutral for the events in the story to be loyal to reality and truth. If the narrator already has an opinion over the characters he doesn't seem professional and doesn't inspire that trust in narrator, feels odd and brute, and also it can twist the views of the reader on whatever characters that are being described.**

 **Eric: And finally Luchux! Welcome back, yeah we had a few rocky moments back there, but we're back on our feet…. and right off the bat, no, we won't be doing any explicit content on this fic. It'll be borderline with some mature jokes, but it won't even come close to actually writing lemons. And as for the Pursuer being the Watcher, it is what Eric is implying as he speaks with Elly in the roof: so far, it feels like the same guy.**

 **Ray: I'd like some lemonade, tho -chuckle-**

 **Eric: Shut. Up.**

 **Eric: And I have a friend to keep beating the shit out of me in Showdown, so I honestly don't have a single fun memory of that game: they beat me in front of everyone in the group with a cheap-ass strategy (you know who you are), so yeah, I don't play it. And as for mentions to Eric… he is dead. His energy and body were what managed to restart the time flow and basically save the entire world from the time freeze (even if time had already been frozen for twenty years so that way there wouldn't be any time paradox crap, since I like making time complicated to mess with just to prevent myself from resorting to it. In other works, I made it such a pain in the ******* ass to manipulate and work with in order to prevent myself from ever resorting to it unless I can actually come up with a cool way to circumvent those limits).**

 **Ray: That followed up for twenty years of misery, but saved everyone in the future at least. Please, let's not get into this, explaining both of our views on time would get an entire chapter and would be boring as fuck!**

 **Eric: And it could be anyone at this point (actually someone has guessed who they are, I promise, there are tons of clues that tell you who it is, I'm not kidding).**

 **And I think that's all of them!**

…

 **Yeah!**

 **And now the chapter starts!**

 **So go and… read it?**

I guess?

 **Enjoy!**

…

 **Come on, just go, there's nothing here.**

…

…

 **Bananas.**

 **Ray: -facepaw-**

* * *

Chapter 13

The Trip

Nashandra waited until the elevator doors, and once they did, and she was greeted by a dimly lit hallway with screens and monitors displaying graphs and other miscellaneous information regarding the experiments taking place there. Near them there were many scientists and guards, including two bodyguards which immediately started following her, making sure nobody tried anything funny. On her way there, she started hearing voices, one of which she recognized immediately as her younger brother's.

"...with how many resources you've been wasting, it's hard to understand why you've been able to hold your extremely privileged position in this team." Gherard insulted the owner of the mansion he was conducting his research in, and next was the sound of a chair falling to the ground and more shouting and swearing. Nashandra came in at that very moment to see an extremely fat man holding her brother by the neck of his white coat, his glasses about to fall off.

"... shut up or I'll turn you into another one of my test subjects, understood?!" His threats only seemed to fall on deaf ears however, as Gherard just grabbed his hands and tightened his grip around them, releasing himself at the expense of almost receiving a punch to the face, hadn't it been for Nashandra coughing.

"Must I report this violent behaviour to our leader, or will you refrain from hitting him?" She coolly asked, and everyone in the room turned to face her: it was only the two extremely obese admins, the one who owned the laboratory they were now in, and David, the one who lead the Arena section.

"Oh? I thought he was coming to this little shit's explanation." The arena leader asked, quite amused that Gherard wasn't getting any attention.

"He will join us later. He had other matters to attend to and will be a few minutes late… but for now, we should start the presentation… and I shall decide whether or not our leader should waste his time with this." She looked at Gherard gravely, and he grinded his teeth, mumbling under his breath while he turned around and enabled the screen in front of them through a few keystrokes. Meanwhile, the lab leader regained his composure and groomed his messed up hair.

"Now now… What do you mean our magnanimous and glorious leader wasn't able to appear on time? Business with the press?" Nashandra looked at him and nodded, then turned her attention to her brother's presentation. "Well, ain't that just great… Anyways, so what is this all about, you little shit?"

Gherard ignores his insult and finally photographs of a farm show up on the monitor, and everyone pays attention to him. "Now… as you may know, a few months ago we received reports of an intense earthquake taking place on this very island not too far away. Immediately, a recon team was dispatched, as you seismic activity was extremely infrequent in this region, and… we found quite a scene." He pressed another key and the photograph changed to that of a thick, black liquid, almost like tar. "This substance, which we confused with tar at first glance, was actually an extremely corrosive liquid, as was found in the nearby surroundings and the unlucky young man who was walking by at the time." Said image appears on, and the only reaction is a small flinch from all present.

( **Glimpse of Fear - Trauma Team** )

"After this, we managed to extract the substance, got rid of the witnesses and started experimenting on this new material… and the conclusions we have reached are astounding." He said, and then pressed another button, the steel curtain where the images were being projected rising and revealing a much larger room: a crystal sphere sat in the middle, inside of the which was the sphere of black liquid they had been talking about, suspended in midair, while there were dozens of scientists going around and typing away at their computers.

David whistled, impressed. "Nice setup, kid… what is it for?" He asked, legitimately curious as to why they were blowing the money he was earning in his arena on these expensive looking toys.

"The first thing we did was crack the mystery behind it's corrosive capabilities, and first we started with inorganic materials, such as steel, iron or rocks. All of them were eventually destroyed, same with any type of organic material we threw into it… be it dead or alive." He looked at the leader of the laboratory, smiling defiantly. "I knew you wouldn't mind if I took a couple of your test subjects and failed experiments… so we threw humans of all ethnic groups, pokémon of all types, minus legendaries of course, and "failures" as well… none of them survived, to our disappointment, but… their sacrifices were not in vain." Another screen rose, and once it turned on it showed some patterns and schematics of atoms.

"And what is it that we're looking at, Gherard?" Asked another voice, and another person came into the room, followed by another admin, the head of the secret forces, Volgin. Everyone in the room bowed and said "Sir" as the man came into the room, and Gherard breathed in deeply and swallowed his saliva, feeling his nervousness setting in, starting to sweat.

"Rutherford's version of the atom, for simplicity's sake. To the left we can see the normal model: the core of the atom, with neutrons and protons and the electron cloud around it. It is a normal atom that we find in nature… but the one to the right, as you can see… is much more different." The atom to the right had a larger amount of neutrons than protons, and there was an incredible amount of electrons floating around it. "Now, what we have to right is something that any high school student would tell us impossible. This structure contradicts all possible rules of physics that have been previously set… but it is the structure we have deduced this substance has." There was a lengthy silence after this statement.

"Impossible." Nashandra stated, and looked at him, angry, but Gherard kept his relative calm, even as their leader rose a hand to stop Nashandra.

"Continue… I want to hear more, and I shall decide after this if it's worth our time." He looked at Gherard. "Continue."

"Yes. You see, when this substance enters in contact with a normal atom, in pulls in whatever this normal atom has and that it lacks in order to become a complete, stable atom. This is the corrosive effect that I was referring to earlier." The screen showed an animation where the strange atom pulled in whatever it needed from the other atom, but the remaining elements also overlapping with the now much bigger and complete atom. "However, the now free elements start moving, now that there is nothing holding them together, and a huge amount of energy is released…" The atom explodes and liberates energy. "And all of the matter eventually disappears and turns into energy, which creates those strange bubbles in the substance whenever it's in contact with matter."

Everyone watches and listens to this explanation, interested, or at the very least, faking it. "Now, I do not need to explain the many applications this substance could have for weaponry…" He shoots a Glance at his sister. "But also I would like to draw attention to the energy that is released in this process, and it's uses. Ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about a pure source of clean energy: even though it is is extremely dangerous, though less than nuclear energy, there is no residue, and the amount of energy liberated is enormous. In fact, for the last two weeks, this entire building and all of it's facilities have been powered by this makeshift generator." Everyone was staring at all of this, eyes either wide open or keeping a calm and collected expression.

( **Stop the music** )

"We could monopolize this… refine the process, discover the way to create or obtain more of this substance and truly change the world: we would have complete control over any country through weapons created with this, and utilize its energy creating capabilities to build an empire the likes of which have never been seen before on this earth." He finalized his presentation, and waited for what their leader thought.

"I am impressed… if what you're saying is true, then this means we have truly stumbled upon a force that will allow us to carry out our wishes…" He chuckled. "Incredible. Simply incredible."

"And we feel as if there might be more uses for this substance, which may require further investigation." The younger scientist added, and for a second he could've sworn he saw the faintest smile on his sister's face, but it disappeared as quickly as it came.

"I am impressed, I must say. I shall leave you to your investigation, but this project definitely holds promise. I shall wait for any more breakthroughs… this meeting is now dismissed, everyone return to your normal posts." The admin said, and everyone dispersed, the two fat admins heading out first, then Nashandra and finally the boss, glancing at Gherard one last time before leaving. Once outside, he approached Nashandra. "I did well at choosing your brother… he holds promise… perhaps I shall promote him to full admin if his discoveries bear fruit." He said, walking past her, and Nashandra froze on the spot, a mortified expression on her face.

* * *

Everyone was getting ready for the upcoming trip. Dust was selecting a few movies in his room aided by Emily who already had picked some that she liked. Shade was with Natalie, both Eevee trying to decide which bow they should take, the Shiny having a much bigger collection than the younger Eevee, all the time asking each other what they thought on the bow they'd picked. Luna was with them for a bit, until it started to get weird for her and the Vulpix had simply picked out a bow she liked and trotted out of the room before they started trying bows on her too, it was a simple icy white bow with shades of light blue. If only she knew how to tie it herself she'll had it on.

At Luca's and Hadrim's room, the Espeon was hiding under the bed for once, while Luca was helping Clara choose the clothes she'll get to the trip. The Espeon just not feeling ok with seeing the woman changing clothes non stop. Dani was gone since he had gone to his work to ask for vacations. Ichiro was also trying to think which clothes to pick, the boy had other things to think on as well tho, such as making sure he had his portable and charger in its bag ready to travel, and asking his Riolu poke-brother for one console and some games as well. Maybe he'll take this console that can be desktop or portable and that game about a destroyed kingdom that a hero has to save after many years of sleeping and recovering.

They weren't the only ones packing things, Team Star was also hard at work getting a few things for themselves: Nox was helping Serge pack some paper sheets and some ink pots into the small suitcase he had grabbed for himself. "I gotta get back into writing… been way too long." The Pidgeot kept repeating that each time he was asked why he was doing that. Jake had filled his entire suitcase with books, just to make sure he didn't suffer from boredom, and Eric was in front of Lucy and Elly, both of the females trying on their bows, trying to decide which ones to take.

"Well… I mean, you look pretty with anything you have, Elly." The Riolu commented, not really sure what to tell her, because it was true.

"Oh, you don't mean that… And besides, just because you're complimenting me isn't going to help our "healing process" any quicker…" She said that just in case, and the Riolu sighed.

"I know, but I didn't mean it like that and you know it…"

Lucy scoffed as the two of them kept talking. "Can you stop being so selfish and help me decide?! I really don't know what to take there!" Her best friend gave her an amused look, and she returned the glance. "What… what are you trying to say with that look?!"

"I mean… Knowing you, you're probably not going to wear that whenever we go down to the café. And besides, Eric and I looked at the hotel on Galvanet, and the café has a dance floor and everything, so I doubt anyone will go down there looking sharp." Instead of convincing her, Elly's words only helped to annoy Lucy further.

"Oh what, so that means that I won't even bother to look pretty?"

"When have you ever tried to look pretty?" Eric bit his lower lip at this comment, even though he knew they weren't completely serious.

"Oh you nymphe… Shut up!" Lucy blushed and kept on picking bows with a smile, Elly laughing, and Eric just looked at them weird. Sure, he had moments like those whenever he was with the other guys, but still… it was odd. That being said, Zed would probably agree that the Kaiser girls lending those bows to Lucy had been a terrible idea.

He stayed silent for a few more minutes, waiting for them to pick out their bows, and felt something nagging at the back of his head. He rolled his eyes and decided to join in the psychic conversation that was currently going on.

" _Serge calling the male brigade, this is urgent! Should I pack cologne?"_

" _Cologne? What the hell is that?"_ There is a long silence where Nox doesn't talk, probably Serge explaining the fire type what it is. " _Ah, but then it smells nice?"_

" _Why would it be necessary to occupy valuable space in our suitcases for something as frivolous and unnecessary as cologne?"_

" _Because you could use some?"_ Eric laughs out loud, making both of the females look at him weird, and Zed, all the way in the other room with Dark, does the same, and Serge's shouts are audible from where they are.

" _ **Excuse me?**_ _I will have you know I wash properly and have perfect hygiene!"_

" _Didn't mean it like that, Ice, just saying that if you used cologne and smelled nicely you'd probably have a better chance at scoring a female."_

Eric rolls his eyes and groans. " _For the love of god, again with this Nox?"_

" _Hey I'm actually going to try and be smart about this, ok Boss? No more "Emily" fiascos, promise."_

" _I'll hold you that. We'll talk later about that, seeing as Serge can't get those ideas out of your head…"_

" _Hey what the hell did I do?"_

" _Nothing, as per usual… And then again, the only guys who'd get a kick out of that cologne stuff is you two. Me and Zed already have someone."_

" _Uuuuh, you sure about that? Because I don't think Elly would mind it if you actually smelled good."_ Eric could hear the Pidgeot snicker as he said this.

" _I don't even know what you interpret as a 'good' smell Serge."_

" _Well, maybe you can come over and you can like, smell them?"_ There was a certain expectant tone in his voice, which Eric didn't notice soon enough.

" _Smell what?"_

" _These nuts!"_ Serge and Nox roared with laughter both in the psychic conversation and in real life, and Eric audibly face pawed, Elly and Lucy jumping up and looking at him, confused. He just waves his paws and dismisses it for what it is: Serge and Nox being jerks.

" _Got 'im!"_

" _I fucking hate you all."_ The Riolu can't help but swear. " _Galvanet is slowly starting to crawl into your brains with those tasteless and stupid jokes you love so much."_

" _Woah, watch your profanity. You're the leader of this team, aren't you supposed to be the role model we all follow? The adhesive that makes the team stick together?"_ There's a long silence after that one. " _Aaaah shit, me and my big beak… Sorry, I kinda…"_

" _No no no, it's alright… We have to try move past that… but please just avoid making more jokes like that…"_

" _Alright, will do…_ _ **Anyways**_ _, going back to what we were talking about: do I pack the cologne yes or no?"_

" _Might as well, as you said, Elly could like it."_

" _And what about you, Zed?"_

" _I… uh… I think I'll pass…"_

" _You sure man? Because this doesn't smell weird or anything… in fact, it smells natural. And I've overheard you and Lucy talking about how much you love it when she is "natural", if you know what I mean…"_ More laughter, and they all felt someone leaving the conversation, probably because the Zorua's face was looking like a ripe tomato. Eric rolled his eyes and said he'd come by later to smell the cologne, making sure he emphasized that last part, and then left the conversation as well, sighing.

For some reason, Natalie was feeling something bothering her ears, she tried to ignore it or soothe it by scratching or moving her ears a bit, but it remained, slightly bothering her but not that much to keep her from concentrating on the bows with Shade.

"Heh, don't you think he's cute when he gets all red?" The shiny commented as she saw Zed like that for a moment, giggling. Natalie looking at him and doing the same.

"You bet. Lucky Lucy got herself a little cutie." And after this and some audible giggling, they went back to their bows. Zed can't help but blush even harder.

Dark woke up to the sound of Nat and Shade talking about bows, and one fell on his face. He let out a low groan as he lifted a paw to take it off his face, and then looked at both Eevee giggling and trying more and more bows. The floor of the room was a sea of untied and tied bows where they were, it was almost impossible to see the floor, even. "You two make so much noise." He said with a tired voice.

Both females looked at him and Nat immediately ran to him and hug him, nuzzling against his face with one big smile. "I'm glad you woke up." She said.

"How are you feeling?" Shade asked, her tone sounding somewhat odd, contrasting with her usual cheery one. He let it slide, having a guess as to why is she like that.

"Dunno… fine?" Was the answer he gave, not being able to feel tiredness at all.

The Zoroark was about to stand up, but Zed quickly shook his head and tried to get up, crawling over to him. "Don't move like that Dark, you're in a weakened state, the worst thing you could probably do right now is moving so suddenly." The Zorua ordered, looking at him. "How are you feeling? Is any spot on your body particularly sore or numb?"

Hearing the smaller dark fox, the Zoroark looked at him. He wasn't in the mood to protest and so decided to be a good pup and stay down on the bed. "Not much… I still feel somewhat heavy but… I think that's all." After he said this something came to his mind that made him chuckle. "Heh. Your cooking is delicious and you are also a nice doctor. Where did they find you, Zed?" He couldn't help but chuckle a bit more after saying that, hoping it sounded more like praising than teasing.

Zed chuckled when the Zoroark said this. "They found me living in the side of a cave with a Lucario and a Mienfoo. It was a long time ago too, so I've only gotten better with time… but really, I'm not that good really… I know when something is broken, yeah, but I can't do much but give orders on how to fix it, I can't do anything… There are stories of some pokémon back home that can heal many types of wounds, or create antibodies to counter viruses, mend bones… You guys are so much more technologically advanced in the field of medicine, I'm jealous." He sounded disheartened for some reason.

"So… It's true you are from another world, huh?" Dark whispered after hearing that last part from the smaler fox.

Zed was extremely fast to come up with a response, since Eric had foreseen something like this would happen eventually. "We come from a very pokémon exclusive environment, and our relationship with humans isn't exactly great, as you may remember from when we were first here… let's just say that it takes an awful long time for things like those to get to where we live… so yeah, you could easily say that we come from another world, one called Sinnoh. Except for Serge, he's from Kanto."

"From very isolated Pokémon only areas I'd say." The Zoroark chuckled slightly, and Zed raises an eyebrow and frowns. "I'm joking, bro." The smaller dark type visibly relaxes. "And Zed… thanks for the help." The evolved added.

He smiles and nods. "Hey, it's the least I can do. I just wish I could do more, is all. I just wish sometime in the future I can teach what I know to someone who can perform better than I do… And I'd pay so much to meet these 'healers'." He stands up slowly, trembling, and gives him some space to stretch and move, backing to where the females were.

"Hey. There's no need to be the best to help if you can do it." Maybe those words coming from him weren't the best to say, but he wanted to say something.

"Oh well… anyways, we won the lottery! And we're going to a hotel on another island… just don't tell Lucy that last detail… for obvious reasons." He adds this last part with a sheepish smile.

The other three in that room nodded or made a gesture of sealed lips with their paws. "You know she's gonna be pissed off, right?" Shade said. "Also if she can't stay in one place, there are rules and she could end up in a cage or in a ball if she gets too… nervous." The Shiny explained.

"Jake said he had a plan… Which isn't exactly reassuring I know, but it's better than having Eric have to hold her again…"

"Let me guess… He's gonna freeze her feet on the spot?" Natalie said, mostly joking, knowing that that Sneasel usually goes for the quickest or easiest solution.

"I don't even know… we'll see when the time comes… but now that he's awake and there's someone to look at you two changing bows, I think I'm going to go back to my room before Elly and Lucy end up making Eric go insane… I have to convince Lucy that she looks much better without a bow." He said and began walking toward the door slowly.

"Oh come on! You really gonna leave me alone to that?" Dark groaned, not being able to escape even if he wanted because of his still heavy feeling body.

"Quit whining, Dark. You've endured me lots of times when I had to try more than a bow on my ear." Natalie teased her brother.

"That's the point: I know how much you take to pick even one piece."

"I mean… if you want to tag along and face Eric… I've my hardest Dark but he… he isn't letting go." He looked at the ground. "I'm sorry…" And with that he left the room, headed toward Team Star's own.

The Zoroark sighed. "Ah… Heh, I guess I deserve his remorse, after all." He felt himself sinking down on the puk bed, eyes on the ceiling. Both girls decided to just go back to their bows, trying to not get down for that. On other side, he had one thing clear: he wasn't going to lose a friend just because of that night. Whilst Dark hoped that he could find a way to fix things between them.

* * *

It was the middle of the afternoon. Dani had come back early from work, but the man seemed to be down. He took the other two humans of the house for a private conversation in the adult's room. After a few minutes in the which Dust and Radius amongst others approached the door to try and hear something, the three humans came out. Dani and Clara kept a calm face, while Ichiro seemed angry and about to hit anything, yet he was trying to calm down with deep breaths. When they saw the Pokémon gathered there, even Luca, who was trying to get back on her feet, Dani sighed.

"I have to go to work, so we can't go-" Dani started to say.

"But I don't get it! You work hard all the year building those places and you ask for vacations and you don't get them? That's stupid!" Radius was the one to protest about this, having heard part of it, said part being the same the man was trying to say to them now, his fur slightly spiked up.

"Smooth your fur, Radius, and let me finish." The human said with such a tone that made Rad's anger dissipate in a second. "As I was saying we can't go yet, because I have to work tonight." He repeated, it was then that the man winked to his son and wife and started smirking at them all. "However… tomorrow I will have an entire month and **then** we can go to that vacation trip." He announced, loving how Shade's, Radius' and other faces got illuminated with the news and started cheering. Mostly the younger ones that hadn't catch that he was pulling a joke on them.

Jake rolled his eyes. "How could you not notice that he was faking it... He could barely keep his composure." Elly, who was right behind him, rolled her eyes and tempted to slap the back of his head for being so thick… then again, it was Jake, so she decided to not do anything.

"Technically he isn't lying, Jake. He does have to go to work tonight. That he tried to make it seem like he didn't got the vacations he asked for is another thing." Hadrim pointed out to the ice type with his usual calm tone in this cases, the Espeon being by his mate's side.

"Besides, he wanted to surprise his family, let the man have some leisure, we barely see him anyways." The Eevee pointed out and looked at Hadrim.

"You got all prepared yourselves?" Luca was the one to ask this, she was now using an aura bone to keep herself on her feet as she walked towards the sofa to sit down, after all she'd been a few hours walking around in the house, including going up and down the stairs.

"Yep! Apparently they took too long because of something called cologne… which Eric hasn't really gone too in depth to say what the heck it was, but it smelled nice… Now let's just pray that everything goes well and we'll be leaving tomorrow early morning, right?" She asked this in order to confirm and give the information to the others.

"That's right. But I wonder if we will all fit in Dani's car with the luggage and all." Hadrim answered this to her with a nod.

"The car's reduced size is going to make everything extremely difficult, yes… specially when considering Serge's generous stature."

"True. I think if he gets on the back of the car we'll have to tie the bags to the roof." The Lucario joked a bit and giggled as she sat down and dismissed her aura bone. Hadrim jumping up and laying down besides her, keeping his head high.

"We are… how many? Nineteen in total?" Had said looking at those that were there, and counting heads. "Some will have to sit over others and since most of you are still non evolved I guess there won't be that much trouble with space. Even then someone will have to sit on the floor." He said this last looking at Rad out of the corner of his eyes to then look back at the psychic Eevee. "By the way Elly, you think you'll be able to manage the situation when the surprise is revealed? You know what we'll have to do with her if not." The question was calm but there was a certain undertone that showed that he couldn't wait to see her face.

"Oh don't worry about it… Jake told me his plan, and it's actually a lot more simple than you imagine… that being said, you won't mind it if we let her freak out for a bit, right?" She chuckles.

He couldn't stop the smile that ambushed his muzzle. "As much as we don't get scolded more than once." He finished it. She smiles and tried to give him a thumbs up with her paw… but it didn't work, and instead she was just raising a forepaw and looking dumb.

"What are you two talking about?" Luca asked since she was asleep when he explained to Elly the behaviour rules and punishments on this trip. He just answered naming certain Shinx and the Lucario almost had to hold back a laughing fit remembering last time. "Oh and let's make sure Dark doesn't get his muzzle into another beer jar. Wouldn't want everyone freaking out because of his unconscious mind games."

"Oh yeah! Definitely!" Elly laughed, knowing that things between her and the two Kaiser parents were almost back to normal. She felt so much comfortable than before, it was amazing.

"Well then. Since we depart tomorrow. Make sure you are not leaving anything back. Pack up last hour things if you have and… basically use your day how you please." Luca said as she stood again, having some trouble at first but managing. Hadrim jumps down from the sofa to keep by her side in case she needed more help than her bone rush and they continued their walking around the house at a slow pace.

"You should rest a bit more Luna…" Elly said, showing concern.

The Lucario looked at her with a smile. "You are a sweetheart, Elly. Thank you for worrying, but if I want to recover fully I should start exercising a bit." She answered. "Besides, I got a nice someone to help me if I fall." She winked, Had's tail tips getting tangled on their own, a sign similar to his blushing face as he looks aside to hide it. Elly can't help but smile… and for a split moment, she doesn't see Hadrim and Luca, nor her and Eric… she sees another pair that were incredibly important in her life. Her breathing quickens, her eyes wide open wide and she feels she's stuck in that spot… and then everything goes back to normal.

"Yeah… I think I need some rest too…" She muttered to herself.

* * *

"Alright… let's check through our stuff one more time… Ink?" Nox pulls out the three sealed pots of ink that Serge had asked they bought for him. "Nice nice… A small stack of paper for writing…" Nox shows this stack, and as they're looking through their shared suitcase, which is mainly being occupied by Serge's writing apparatus, Lucy barges into the room.

"Come on already, you're taking forever to check your stuff Serge! You're more thorough than Jake with this crap!" She shouts, beyond annoyed.

"Hey, we're coming alright?!" He shouts back and she sticks her tongue.

"If you don't come in two minutes we're leaving without you!" And with that she was off again. Serge groaned and closed the suitcase, then carefully grabbed it with his right wing, wincing at the slight pain in his chest, then motioned to the door with his head, telling Nox they were leaving.

"I mean… they're absolutely right dude, you take forever to do this stuff." Nox pointed out as they were leaving and closing the door. As they went down the stairs Serge only groaned in annoyance.

"Because I mostly travel without luggage, so when I actually have to carry stuff with me I always forget something! I know how I am with this stuff, so there's good reason! You people though… so anxious! It's not like the hotel's going to up and vanish in one night!" He shouted as they came out to the main entrance.

"Would you stop whining, you big chicken!" Luna said. "I don't know how this works but for what I've heard from Clara and Daniel if we are not there for a specific hour we lose the rooms." She said to the bird as she was also going out of the door since she's got problems while getting ready to go.

"Alright, alright, let's get this… wait! Feathers!" He shouted, turning around and heading to the house.

Unlucky for him, Clara had already closed and locked the house. "Come on, Serge! You got a lot of feathers already! Is not like you can't replace the ones you're leaving behind!" The Vulpix called for the avian.

Serge stops on the spot. "Actually… for once, you're saying something that actually makes sense, Luna!"

She stopped, looked at him and groaned. "Nox would you want to have roasted Chicken for dinner tonight?" She asked the Houndour, smoke coming out of her nostrils because of the biggest pokemon mocking her. Serge just rolls his eyes and passes his luggage to Daniel so he can properly put it there.

Everyone's waiting for them to get on the car. The luggage in place and the back of the car open for Serge, Daniel waiting to close it. Eric and Elly are sitting at the far right, Elly on Eric's lap and whispering, talking about something, Lucy and Zed are lying on the floor underneath them, trying to sleep, and Jake is right next to Eric and Elly, toying around with Ichiro's pokenav, since he had asked to look at it closely to understand what it could do. So far, he was really pleased with it, but he wasn't pleased at all when Nox nonchalantly made his way to his feet and disturbed his concentration.

The three humans were on the front, after all Dani was the one to drive, Radius and Natalie on the floor there as well. In the back seats were Dark by the window on the opposite side of Eric, with Shade curled on his lap. Next to him Dust and Emily, chatting calmly and giggling every now and then for something, also with her playfully pushing the Riolu away. Hadrim lying behind them, and Luca sitting on the middle of the couch. Everyone that could had the security belts buckled, which made it a bit more uncomfortable for those who had to sit right where those pesky life saving straps hooked to the sit.

Serge finally got into the car's trunk and managed to poke his head out to look at everyone inside the car. "Sup everyone? Ready for some of the most uncomfortable hours of our entire lives?" He asked with a big smile on his face.

"Heh, You bet." Dark was the one to answer. "I'm actually jealous of those who had the floor. They have more space."

"This reminds me of a clown's car." Dust chuckled, remembering that one commercial about a cloth cleaner product where around thirty clowns come out of a tiny little car. It was amusing for almost all of them who knew the reference he was making, except for two of the ones there, who shivered at ther personal memories of working with clowns.

"Oh don't remind me of those." Radius was the one to say this, and it only made them laugh a bit, enough to spread the good mood to at least the two who endured such a bad circus experience.

"All right then! We're going to have so much fun playing 'I spy!' for like…. ten hours straight and then want to kill ourselves because of how bored we are!" Serge said, covering basically what everyone was thinking.

"You say that. You can look out of the windows." Natalie answered still laughing a bit. After that, the real "I spy" game began… and it amazingly took thirty minutes from everyone in the back rows to become bored and tired, and so they each went to do their own thing: Jake kept fiddling with the Pokenav, Zed and Lucy kept trying to find something interesting to do, while Serge, Nox, Eric and Elly tried to sleep, with mixed results: the latter managed to fall asleep, or at least relax enough, but the former were unable to sleep for a prolonged amount of time.

After almost two hours of travel they had gone out of town, following the road towards Ebony port, Daniel Knowing the way but even then the route was marked by signals. After a bit the man started to sing a travel song. Luca, Clara and even Ichiro followed in a chorus and Hadrim added on afterwards. As well as those that felt in the mood to actually sing such a silly song. Emily being one of the first to join as she caught up to the others following Dani's lead, even if she didn't knew the song herself.

At the same time, Ichiro had started his portable, guess it, playing a Pokémon game, but not any Pokemon game but one that held the fantasy of a human turning into a Pokemon based on an interview. The human kid got to be a Riolu and named his character Dust, then it was his companion, an Eevee named Shade. For some stupid reason the game had those two Pokemon in gender lock in a way that only females could be Eevee and only males could Riolu. He had reached a point in the game where he was out on an expedition. He had just finished coming out of the second Mystery Dungeon there. It was a nice way to kill time until they arrived at their destination. The boy had earplugs plugged to his portable so the game sounds wouldn't bother anyone, and he has them off as he listened and followed his father on the song.

Once they finished, Daniel started a new one, but this time, Ichi decided to concentrate on the game. After a bit not hearing him, Shade decided to jump over to the front row to see what was the human up to, and seeing him playing that she sit by his side and watched him play. Dark curious as well, leaned forwards to take a look as well, getting interested in the game as he recognized it as well.

Serge followed their example, leaning forward and poking his head in between the seats, probably bothering Clara a little bit, as his head was right besides her's, and looking down at Ichiro. "Watcha doin'?" He asked with a voice, probably following up on that "clown car" gag from before.

"He's playing a game." Dark answers calmly as they keep watching. Ichiro comes out of yet another dungeon and into a scene with all the guild and the map on the top screen. Serge's eyes went wide open when he saw both the extremely familiar map and the extremely familiar guildmembers… he had to keep himself from physically reacting by either gasping or exclaiming something.

"Huh. Neat!" He simply said, then went back and say down in the back, breathing deeply.

Meanwhile, Natalie crawled under the front seat and went to the back of the vehicle and then walked towards Lucy and Zed. "Is there room for one more?" She asked with a smile.

"What do you think?" Lucy's answer was obviously sarcastic. There was in fact some room, but it'd be awkward nonetheless.

"That you are very comfy with your cutie to share some space with a friend as small as me." Natalie giggled, obviously joking about it and deciding to lay by Luca's legs. "So. I'm a little bit curious. How's your home?" She asked, looking at the four members of Team Star that where on that side of the car.

"It's… uh…" Lucy bites her tongue, trying to come up with an answer. However, it was Zed who rescued her from that predicament.

"It's a seaside town! It's very small, and the pokémon there are awfully nice. There aren't any humans around, so it's just a bunch of pokémon… but we live in relative peace, save for the occasional outlaw that we have to put a stop to…"

"Sounds nice." Nat says. "But I'm sure there's more to tell. Come on there has to be some nice places to have a date on." She says. When she realizes what she just said her face blushes hard.

"What, with Radius? Yeah, I can definitely picture both of you walking along the beach… Gosh I miss that beach so much." Lucy says nostalgically.

Zed can't help but chuckle at Lucy's comment, and then looks back at at Natalie. "Well… It's definitely a quaint little place. Peaceful and really pretty." Zed adds on top of Lucy's teasing. "And yeah, the beach is amazing. We all had a lot of fun there just relaxing and hanging out during our down days."

Natalie quickly forgot about her embarrassment listening to them and smiling. "Sounds like a nice place. Maybe if I can someday I'll go and see all that for myself." She said, turning to look at the laying down Jolteon, who was having a calm nap and sighing with an even bigger smile on her muzzle. And she kept giving them conversation about their homeland.

While they were both talking with Natalie, they felt a certain nagging at the back of their heads, which was slightly familiar to them by this point: it was someone trying to start a psychic conversation. " _Uuuh… Guys? Can I talk with you for a moment? It's something important._ "

" _Serge, are you about to tell us you're really bored? Because if you're bothering us just to be annoying…_ " Lucy trailed off, implying punishment should this be something silly.

" _Well, you're making it reaaaaally tempting with comments like those…_ _But that's besides the point! It's actually really important, because I just saw something really weird._ "

" _I thought we'd stopped playing "I spy" for the time being?_ " Nox asked, now just plain confused, but joining the conversation because he was extremely bored.

" _If I remember correctly, Serge said that should we start playing "I spy" again for the remainder of the trip he would, and I quote 'Rip out your eyes and shove them down your throat.' Does this mean we must now remove your eyes, Serge?_ " Jake chimed in, his voice dripping sarcasm.

" _First of all, I didn't say exactly that… Ok, maybe I did don't look at me like that. And second, now we're not playing 'I spy' again, and I still hold that threat._ "

" _Purely because I angered you with my rather complicated riddles and my spot-on guesses._ " If they could look at his face they'd see a smug smile on the Sneasel's face.

Serge groaned. " _Laugh it up, Jake! Laugh it up! And besides, how is "An object whose composition is purely synthetic and with a certain rough texture" a fair clue for the fucking seats?! I'm not even sitting in one!_ " As Serge reminds that last guess, Nox can barely hold back laughter, bending forward and chuckling to himself, Serge glaring daggers at him. " _Shut up kiddo. I get enough roasts from Ice over there._ "

" _Why do you insist on using that simple and somewhat racist nickname?_ " Ice commented, but all of a sudden Lucy just came into the conversation with the loudest groan she could make.

" _You guys need to shuuuut uuuuuuup!_ "

" _Then do something about it if you want us to be quiet!_ " Nox teased, and Lucy's fur crackled with electricity and sparks.

" _Oh, I'll get over there and fry your ba-_ " She had to stop herself right then and there, and nobody said anything.

" _You know… you don't have to censor yourself. Neither Eric or Elly are in this conversation._ "

Suddenly, Elly giggled inside their heads. " _You sure about that?_ " She asked, everyone turning to face her in real life and saw as she smiled widely and winked at them. " _Always waaatchiiiing…_ " She slowly closed her eyes again, and everyone had to fight back laughter, just because of how dumb that all had looked.

" _Oh no, you're not getting out of this conversation now that you've shown your presence! How long have you been listening to us?!_ " Lucy asked, mad, and Elly opened her eyes again.

" _I control these conversations, so I joined after Jake decided to comment. By the way, your clues are garbage, Jake._ " Nox and Serge laughed after she said this.

" _Fuckin' roasted!_ "

" _Savage. You have zero chill._ "

" _Shut up. All of you_." Eric suddenly chimed, sounding really tired. " _Woke me up because of your garbage. The worst team partners in history._ "

" _Awww, we love you too man._ " Nox's words didn't comfort the Riolu in the slightest.

" _Ok, so since you're all here, can you all hear what I have to say?_ " Serge repeated, and there was silence. " _I snuck up behind Ichiro and took a look at what he's playing, and he's playing a pokémon game… and I swear to god I just saw the Sinnoh map and the game's characters look exactly like the guildmembers back home._ "

" _Shut up._ " Lucy said, not believing his words.

" _I'm being hundred percent honest… Jake, go take a look._ "

The Sneasel groaned and got up from his seat, leaning over to the front and looking over at the young human from behind… and then he sat down. " _He's saying the truth. He was planning on going to Treeshroud Forest._ "

" _No way! For real?!_ " Nox asked, still not believing it. Nobody was moving or physically reacting in any way that made them suspicious… but through their psychological connection they were having a heated discussion about what this could all mean and what was going on…

Even then, Natalie, who had gone to Dark's Side when her conversation with Zed and Lucy finished and was trying to get some sleep, flipped her ears, as if trying to shoo away a fly. but there wasn't any to bother her. Yet after a moment she growled slightly and sat up, scratching behind her ears in turn. Noticing this, Dark stopped reading a book he had taken out of his mane that basically contained the traffic rules and looked at her. "What is it?" He asked. Natalie sighed and shook her head a bit.

"Dunno. It's as if i had a fly rounding my ears that i can't shoo away and it's starting to get annoying." She said, trying to ignore it and relax so she could have a nap, the task being very difficult for her, at least until her brother started scratching her gently behind the ears, making her purr and relax to the point that she managed to fall asleep, and he went back to his reading.

" _We need to ask them. But we have to do it in a way that they don't suspect anything. For now, let's just relax for a bit, and we'll ask them when we get to the hotel…"_ They all agreed with Eric, and they all felt the nostalgia and the desire to go home that was in his voice. " _Good grief, how long have we been here anyways? Almost half a year?_ "

" _Pretty much… wonder what's going on back home…_ " Elly said, and immediately voiced everyone's worries, all of them starting to think and wonder, going back to what they had been doing the week prior to encountering the Watcher for the first time.

" _Well, I'm sure everything will be alright… and hey, look on the bright side: Our new place will be done by the time we get there!_ " Lucy reminded them all, brightening the mood a bit.

" _Oh yeah, crap, I totally forgot! It has due like… four months, right? I'm so excited for that attic room with that skylight… I can just go in through it from the air, it's gonna be so awesome!_ " Serge said, clearly wanting to use this skylight.

" _I bet you want that so much just so you can get in and out of the house as often as you want without us noticing and taking in those lady "friends" of yours…_ " Lucy commented, and Serge looked at her.

" _They're honorable females that I have charmed with my natural skills! I am just putting to use what Arceus gifted me with! Is that wrong?_ " He obviously knew that what he was saying was kind of messed up… but he didn't think about it too much.

" _Well, anyways… I also miss some of the people in Treasure Town… Except Chatot._ " Elly said all of a sudden.

" _Ooooh my god we're not talking about him right now._ " Lucy went full denial mode, triggering the laughter of every member in team Star, confusing the heck out of the Kaisers, with the exception of Dust, Radius, Luca and Shade, who were asleep.

Elly eventually relaxed. " _Ok it's not that I hate him… but seriously, between him and Loudred back when he didn't stop screaming… you were lucky if you kept your eardrums intact._ "

"You know that for newby psychics a prolongated conversation can get to their nerves, right?" Hadrim whispered to them all with a calmness only proper on him. The Espeon looked recently awake and his voice sounded the same, as if he had been woken up from his nap, hell he even had his face still laying on Luca's lap, the mentioned one drooling in her own sleep. He wasn't telling them to shut up at all, just that they tuned their psychic wave to a lesser frequency so it was harder to catch.

"Eeeeh…" Elly rubbed the back of head head. "Sorry… just having a blast here… By the way, we were thinking about going to the beach one of these days… some of us are feeling kinda nostalgic."

He sighed a bit as he looked at her, thinking. "A beach…" He thinks out loud. "There's one beach that humans have forbidden the access. there's one on every island at least, for the wilds mostly but you could go too. But I only know the one in this island… mrlf what was the name again?" Silence for a moment. "It's commonly known as Twilight Sand beach. Thought the humans signaled it with another name I can't recall right now for their road and route signals, even then, there is always a note besides the name that reads 'Pokémon only beach'. It's close to the town we live in. Maybe you can search in Galvanet for it, Jake." He informs them and suggest to the ice type.

Jake was nostalgic for treasure town, but for other reasons… and of course, one of them wasn't the beach. "Do you not remember that I cannot stand the heat? The sand on the beach is scorching hot for normal pokémon, imagine it for someone such as me, whose body temperature is lower than average… that being said, the water does a fantastic job at lowering my temperature… I shall look into it when we arrive at the hotel."

"The pokenav should have connection so you can search for things without a Wi-Fi connection, Jake. Unless it's finished already."

"There's Wifi at the hotel, right?" Nox asked all of a sudden.

"Why do you care?" The Zorua inquired, finding that question really strange, especially for Nox, a pokémon who had never really used or knew what the Galvanet was until like… three months ago.

"Just… asking. No reason in particular." The Houndour was horrible at lying, and everyone could get a pretty clear idea of what uses he'd have for Galvanet… specially when he was alone.

"There should be. A lot of people that goes there need to be connected for different reasons." Had said. "Other thing is if it's free or we have to pay for it."

"I wanna go to the beach too." Emily chimed in, leaving the side of her mate to get into the conversation as well. "When do you plan on going?" She asked the team.

"Whenever we can… Right now it's not the best time… we'll take advantage of this small trip and relax… maybe after that. How's that sound, Emily?" Eric decided that this was the best option they had to satisfy everyone's wishes, and everyone seemed to agree with him.

"Right, boss!" She said with a smile and her tail wagging furiously, just to then giggle and go back with Dust, who she nuzzled and laid down with. Hadrim looked at her and smiled as well, but then his smile flattered and went away into a more serious face. ' _It's going to be so hard when the time comes…_ ' He thought, looking then at the sleeping Dust. He even wondered if she had realized this, or even Team Star themselves. However, break it to her if she didn't knew yet would probably be too hard. This thoughts woke him up completely. Or maybe it was the fact that Daniel had stopped the car.

"Ok guys. go out and stretch your legs a bit, we are going to be here for a bit until we are told to get on the ship." The human said as he turned off the car's engine and came out himself to do exactly that. Hadrim gently woke up Luca, while Dark did the same with Nat, and Emily… well she moved Dust a bit while calling him to wake him up before the both of them went out by Dark's door, the Zoroark deciding to stay in the car studying a bit more. The rest of the Kaiser went out of the car and stretched, Ichiro sitting back down after looking around and going back to his game.

"Don't you have your license already Dark?" Natalie asked her brother, who stops his reading and looks at her.

"I don't think a license with a human photo on it would work for me right now, Natalie. Besides that, the one i have is completely different from the official here. So seems I'll have to go to driving school again at some point. I'd rather be prepared." He answered and went back to the study book.

"Driving license? Why do you want that?" Shade popped into the conversation.

"Well, even if I love running through a forest and the walks to town from the house. I'd like to have my own vehicle so I can go wherever I want without having to wait for Dani to be able to take me somewhere." He explains calmly.

"But don't you need to be at least sixteen for even the motorbike license? You might be more than that in mind but your body is clearly under ten."

"... I'll walk that path when I come to it. Thanks for pointing it out."

Meanwhile, Lucy was mortified, still sitting in the car. "S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-ship!? I- Nobody told me anything about a ship!" As everyone was about to get out, they all stopped and looked at her, and Serge just leaned to her and patted her head lightly with his wing.

"There there… we did it all for you Lucy. Didn't tell ya because you wouldn't have wanted to come along." The Pidgeot's attempts at "comforting" the Shinx failed however, and she only grew even more worried by the second, getting angsty and breathing rapidly. Even the bird himself was starting to worry.

"Uuuh… Jake? Whatever you wanted to do… go ahead and do it now… I give you permission." Eric quickly said, making it seem as if it was a direct order to Jake… but he just stood still, with his arms crossed.

"I am pondering the possibility of leaving her awake in this state for a few minutes… Her reaction could be great research material later down the line…" His voice made it sound like he was actually serious, and this just enraged Lucy.

"What the hell did you just s-" She barely got to say those words before Jake suddenly undid the zip on his bag, pulled out a small wrapped paper and then blew a cloud of green dust at Lucy's face, all while he twirled around in one fluid motion. She coughed a bit. "Ahhhh! My eyes! My… eyes… you… mother fuuuu... " She face planted right after that, snoring loudly. Meanwhile, absolutely everyone was staring at her, and then at Jake, baffled. Surprisingly, or rather unsurprisingly enough for some, Zed was the first to react, and he was not happy.

"What did you do to her?! Did you just use sleep powder to make her fall asleep?!" Zed expected some kind of apology… but instead Jake gave him a black, yet confused look.

"Of course. What else did you expect me to do, given who I was dealing with, what the situation was, and every other possible outcome: this is the best result, no matter from which angle you look at it." He rationalized as excellently as always, since nobody could come up with a simpler and quicker solution.

"Yeah, but still! Putting her to sleep without her consent?! She's going to kill you for this!"

"A necessary sacrifice. Besides, it was Eric who requested Lucy be 'taken care of', as he put it." This confession made Zed gasp and look at the Riolu, who looked at them alarmed, raising his arms.

"In my defense, I don't want my arms to get covered in cuts again! I've had enough of those as of late, damn it!" This triggered a round of chuckling, minus Zed and of course Jake, the former sighing in defeat.

"Fine… I'll try to keep her calm when she eventually wakes up… But yeah, I guess this is better than having her locked up in a cage… or worse, in one of those brainwashing balls." Jake nodded with the Zorua's last statement, and they all proceeded to meet with the rest, Eric taking it upon himself to carry Lucy, given that this was his idea, which separated Eric, Elly, Zed and Lucy from Jake, Serge and Nox, who grouped around the Sneasel.

"There's just… one thing I don't get though." Serge asked, and the ice type rose an eyebrow and looked at him. "How'd you get your claws on sleep powder?"

Jake took a hefty amount of time to answer that question, and they could've sworn they saw him twitch when he asked that. "I merely bought it from the chemist in town. It was cheap, given how common it is." This didn't convince them both however, since they could tell something was fishy about this whole thing.

"Wait… they sold sleep powder to some shady looking guy as you?"

"I beg your pardon?" There was a certain hostility in his words, and the Pidgeot stuttered when he tried to explain himself. Luckily, Nox came to the rescue.

"I mean, you don't exactly look convincing… come on dude, all of this is making you far more suspicious! Just tell us, because I don't think the chemist would've let you walk away with sleep powder scot free."

Jake and Serge looked at Nox. "Holy shit… you're acting smart for once! Who are you and what've you done with kiddo?!" Serge joked, much to Nox's dismay.

"Look, I'm not an idiot… all of the time. I just don't think shit through, ok? And I kind of act like a punk and want to be the best… and as for why I know that, it's because I… also tried it once. And it didn't work, so I know it first experience." There was a heavy silence after that.

"I… Ok, kiddo, not even going to get close to that one, even with a fifty foot pole, but he's right. So speak already!" Serge exclaimed, and Jake felt too pressured to keep it in.

"Very well… I told her it was medicinal." He looked at both of them, looking downright uncomfortable. "There. Happy? May we resume our voyage? The others are-"

"Not yet." Nox cut in again, much to the Sneasel's growing annoyance. "Because that sounds like you're doing some shady shit with that sleep powder."

"Yeah… the 'It's medicinal' excuse makes it sound like you're using it for… recreational purposes." Yet another long silence. "No, I haven't done anything like that. I've had a long life, and I've seen enough crap in my life to see how much that stuff destroys it… but still, what the hell were you doing with it?" Serge was legitimately worried for Jake now… fearing they had stumbled upon something quite serious…

"I… Of course I am not using it to drug myself! It's…. quite the opposite in fact. I have problems when it comes to sleeping… specially as of recent." He confessed, but they didn't say anything yet, they wanted him to explain himself further. "You see… you may remember how I have stayed up extremely late on countless occasions and whole nights reading… even reading well into the afternoon of the next day and night without getting any sleep… And it was simply because I just forgot to go to sleep. I forgot about my tiredness from how concentrated I was on reading and… It paid a heavy toll on me one day, so I decided to find a way to force myself to sleep… and since I do not trust human 'medicine', which is no better than actual drugs… I decided to use sleep powder to force myself to sleep."

As he finished his long and extremely detailed explanation… Serge and Nox were speechless. They could not believe what he was saying. "Wait... What?!"" Serge asked, and all of a sudden both he and Nox started laughing, if anything to relief the amount of stress that had built up in just a few minutes. "Hold up! You're telling us you bought sleep powder… **because you forgot you had to sleep?!** " Yet another round of laughter, and this time they had called the other's attention.

"Yes. Now may you please stop screaming it so loudly, since this is a rather embarrassing topic for me."

"Icy Heart? Embarrassed? That's new." Luna commented as her attention was called by the laughter of those two. "What did we all miss?"

"We just figured out where Jake got that sleep powder from: guy bought from the chemist's because he 'forgets to go to sleep' when he's too focused on reading… I mean… for real man?! Sleeping is the best!" Serge shouted, just baffled that he wasn't having this conversation in the first place.

"No way! You gotta be kidding me." "She looks at the Sneasel with a surprised face. "What could make you forget you need to sleep just by reading a book!? You out of everyone. Who finds every emotional parts of a story so boring that he could just fall asleep between the pages." Jake simply growls, and understand that he is going to have to suffer the teasing throughout the entirety of the ship trip.

After the problem with Lucy and the teasings to Jake were done. A man that worked on the deck came to Daniel and told him to get ready to get aboard. The family man nodded and turned to them all. "Ok. All of you out of the car, get all you need to get to be entertained up there for a few hours so I can pick up the car." The human said. Only Dust, Hadrim, Luna, and Daniel himself came back to the car. Dark reached over to the back of the car and picked up his bag as Hadrim and Dust took each a bag pack of their own and Dani had to get another one, slightly bigger, from the ceiling where the luggage was and tied it all back when he had it. "Everyone got anything?" they all nodded and he closed and locked the car once everyone was out, took a Pokeball from his pocket and enlarged it before taping the car, that was sucked in, luggage and all, thanks to the tight tying it had, and they could see that other humans and Pokemon were doing the same around them.

"Wow! How'd you do that?" Emily asked, surprised by this.

"Well Pokéballs are not only made to hold in Pokémon. They can be used as well for this kinda stuff. Makes it easier for everyone and plus the Pokéball company is not only around Pokémon battling or caring. Meaning they get more money." Dust explained with a smile.

With that out of the way, the Kayser and Team Star got to the Passengers line. "You doing ok, Eric?" Ichiro asked, offering to carry Lucy himself. Eric shook his head however, responding that he was fine carrying the sleeping Shinx, and appreciated the offer.

They only had to wait a few minutes before the people started to board the ship. When it was their turn, Daniel had the Documents of the three humans ready, handled them to the ticket woman, who scanned the pins and saw the info she needed and for the three documents, she checked the Pokemon that came with the three humans, "Ok. All seems to be in order, sir. You know the rules if you want your pokémon to roam free around the ship. Have a nice trip." She said with a smile.

"Thank you." Was the Kaiser human's answer and then they headed into the ship. " _Guys. The travel rules apply from now on and 'till we leave the ship. Try to behave, please._ " A mental message from Daniel broadcasted into everyone's head by Hadrim. A variety of responses than ranged from "Right" to "Roger" was what the Kaiser pokémon answered out loud. Team Star just nodded, and they all got on the ship. It didn't take long for them to explore every inch on the vessel, and most of them were tired because of the car trip.

"Ugh, I wanna sleep on a real bed…" Elly said, nuzzling Eric's side, and just smiling weakly as he also wanted to catch some sleep.

"Yo, Hadrim! Where are our rooms? Or anywhere we can sleep, because some of us are feeling sick from the car ride." The Pidgeot called as their leaders said this, feeling kinda tired from the car ride as well.

"For a five or six hours trip there's no need for rooms. When we get to the seats you can get comfy there and catch some Z's if you want." The Espeon answered as they started to head to the back side of the ship. There, The Kaiser quickly took on an empty round table surrounded by two cushions surrounding it. The bags were put on the floor and everyone got comfortable. Some, like Radius, Shade, Luna and Luca, tried to go back to sleep, others, like Dark, Natalie and Ichiro, decided to go out to wait and see the ship set sail. While two of them, namely Emily and Dust had gone missing after leaving their things with the others. The curious Eevee wanting to explore all she could from the ship while Dust followed to make sure she didn't get lost and that she was ok. Her curiosity was something that made him smile because how cute she got when she got hyped by this kind of things. Hadrim just stayed at the seat by his mate, wide awake and making sure everything was on his sight.

The trip lasted five and a half hours, docking included. In that time, the three that had gone out came back inside and Dark got back to his studying, Natalie lay down by Rad and fell asleep to pass time faster and Hadrim watched over them all. Daniel and Clara were having some quality time themselves somewhere around the ship and Emily and Dust were exploring. At first it was ok, just looking around places, maybe taking a peek into some open rooms at the rooms floor to see how it was, but it all ended when Em saw a crewman go through a door and she wanted to what was behind too so she ran and crossed it, Dust hot on her tail trying to stop her but the poor male couldn't reach her in time to stop her before the door closed, leaving them into the crew only area.

Dust grew nervous, if they messed up not only will they be scolded, but also Daniel, Clara or Ichiro could get a lecture too in front of the rest of the passengers. He tried to open the door somehow but Em on the other side decided to go further in that area and explore everything. Just the fact that they started being sneaky added to her fun, while for Dust it added to his anxiety. By the time the ship arrived they were lucky enough to be caught at one door by one crew pokémon, a female Garchomp, that bought the little story that they went in by accident and couldn't get out. After that Dust headed straight for the seats and made sure neither him nor Emily moved from there until they had to, the golden Riolu eventually falling asleep after all the tension. His mate on the other side, was still wide awake and wanting telling their exploration to Hadrim.

The Espeon looked at her and then sighed. The rules were simple: don't mess up and behave. Since they had no identification documents yet, even after all this years on the family, they have to board ships under the care of the humans which means their messes would have to be owned up by them. At least he was glad that little event didn't have that more to it than just that last moment..Of course, none of the Team Star members said anything, as they were all either sleeping or relaxing under the sun. All of them headed toward a new island, a new destination none of them had explored… except for Serge, who already knew what the hotel they were going to looked like. Either way, it wouldn't be long now, so they decided to get as much rest as they could to make the most of the rest of the day.

* * *

"I hate you. I hate you. **I hate you.** " Lucy said this to Zed, Eric and finally Jake, in that order.

"What did I do?" Zed asked, kind of confused, but also amused. She glared at him. "I wasn't in on the whole thing, and I wasn't really happy that they forced you to sleep… and besides, it saved us a huge headache, be honest Lucy."

She grumbled under her breath and then sighed, thankful that it was all over, and decided to go along with everyone to meet the entire group. Nox greeted them. "Jeez, finally! I was here first, so I had to wait forever!" The Houndour said, and Lucy rolled her eyes, as if saying "of course he'd be first".

"C'mon, don't be like that kiddo. Now… what do we do?" Serge asked, looking at everyone in the group.

"Would you guys like to walk for a bit? We've got some time before we have to be at the Hotel. Or would you rather go there right away?" Daniel asked everyone once they were all grouped up, a Pokéball in hand. While waiting, Dark had once more glued his eyes to his book, and now the Zoroark was so absorbed into learning that he didn't pay attention to… almost anything that was happening at the moment. The rest of the Kaiser thought about it. Most wanted to get there and be done with the moving so they could be calm and know they had a place to go for the night, some of this were Luca, Radius, Ichiro and Clara, While Natalie and Luna wanted to explore around for a bit and Dust didn't care much what they'll do.

"I say we get there, dump all our luggage and stuff, and then check out the hotel itself, and later on we'll go for a walk. How about it?" Eric proposed to everyone, and basically all of the Team Star members agreed, specially Serge.

"My wings are still cramped up from before…" He stretched them slowly, hearing the joints crack, eliciting soft groans. "Oooh yeah, that's better."

"Serge, be careful! I don't want you to further break you wings or anything, damn it!" The Zorua suddenly got angry all of a sudden, although it was understandable, since Serge was still trying to heal up.

"Ok then." Dani said and threw the ball up, the car materializing out of the capsule in seconds and the man stored the ball back into his pocket. "All aboard! We'll be at our destination in less than an hour!" He said loudly, as if trying to take a laugh out of everyone, only accomplished amused looks from half his family and maybe some giggles from Em. The rest of Team Star groaned though, sa they did not want to go inside the car, again, but it wasn't like they had any choice.

Once everyone was on the car, and after Natalie had to break Dark out of his concentration. The whole group went towards their hotel. It wasn't that far away from the port city. and the Hotel as Ichiro saw on the Galvanet when he scanned the code on the card was on Fierna Island. "If a Volcano recently erupted and went back to sleep, it won't wake up for a long time." Daniel had said to encourage everyone to go there. It took more effort but in the end he managed to convince them all.

They arrived at the hotel, which was one big building of four floors. "Since we said we'd come with a Pidgeot they gave us one suite with one big balcony on the fourth floor for Serge in case he recovers during this month." Dani informed with a smile as they went in and he checked, Serge cheering from behind as he said that "he was finally treated with the respect he needed". Clara then took the key and with Emily, Shade, Natalie and helping Luca, headed towards their room as they were given a copy of the map of the place, yet the only thing they carried was their own backpacks as they went.

Dani sighed seeing this, usual behaviour on his wife to find a way to get away from hard work, got his copy of the map and started giving orders as if he was in the construction. Even Ichiro had something to carry, Serge got the lesser weighs, that is if he didn't escape with the females that went ahead. Serge didn't escape, but didn't pick up any weights, mainly because Zed would've killed him if he had, so it was up to Eric and of course, Elly, to carry most of the luggage… and the Eevee's psychic capabilities attracted a crowd of pokémon and humans, who looked at the normal type curiously, making her blush.

"Holy heck, is that Eevee using psychic moves?!"

"That's so cool! I want that Eevee! Whose trainer do you think it is?" This last one made everyone on Team Star weary, and Eric stepped in between and looked at the human teenager, crossing his eyes, getting his point across.

"I don't know if they're captured to begin with… I could probably stash them into pokeballs if I wanted." Some kid suddenly spit this out, obviously bragging, because the second he said this Serge walked up to him, his massive two meter size surpassing the kid's, scaring the daylights out of him and making him go near the verge of tears.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Serge said, crossing his wings in front of him and cockily, which then made him the centre of attention. "Alright, can we please get going now? This is starting to get hella awkward…"

"No way man! You're already getting tons of fans, can't you see?!" Nox cheered, obviously laughing at the flying type's situation.

"Stop showing off and get on the move, guys, please." Dani spurred them on as he picked some bags himself and almost looking like a strongman.

Elly wasn't the only one using her psychic abilities. Thought Hadrim likes some physical effort, he too used his psychic to carry great part of the luggage. " _Where did all this extra came from?_ " He wondered, looking and seeing most of them had.

"Would you believe me if I told you that one of those luggages was filled with paper, inkpots and cologne?" Nox asked, also carrying a bag on his back.

"You all better watch what you try with them. I saw one of them once smashing an entire trainer's team and the trainer himself against a wall and knock them out without even touching them." Ichiro said, trying to get the idea out of their minds. "Besides, they all have owner microchips." Now that was a big lie, but so much used that it sounded true enough… possibly.

"Ichiro. Stop and let's move." Dani said with a firm tone, shutting his son and putting everyone on the way to the room.

"Wow, he went all…" Dark started to comment but couldn't find the right adjective to describe how was he seeing Daniel at that moment.

"Firm?" Radius suggested, balancing the clothes bag on his back.

"Strict?" Dust, fixing the one he was carrying.

"Eric" Lucy suddenly added, and the Riolu thought she was calling him. He asked what was happening, and when he didn't receive any answer other than laughter he decided to give up.

"Lieutenant?" Hadrim added more.

"...yeah. **All** of that." The Zoroark said, joking slightly with the emphasis as an attempt to lessen some tension. It didn't work, tho.

"He gets like that when he only wants to do one trip and be done. We could do this in two trips and do it calmly but seems like he wants to get to the room ASAP." Dust said as they all walked out into the complex. The corridors were well decorated with greens here and there and the rock floor wasn't that hard to walk on. The room was deep into the place, at the fourth floor at the other side of the various pools where they could see various Pokémon having fun or relaxing. There was a hot pool, where Jake surely got grumpy, an ice cold pool, a pool for electric types, and of course a pool that didn't need special treatment and that was for everyone else to enjoy.

"Excellent! A pool for ice types!" Jake suddenly exclaimed as he saw this sign.

"Wait… was that Jake actually being excited?!" Serge joked, drawing attention to this fact and earning himself laughs from his friends, including a weak chuckle from the Sneasel himself too.

"Sure. It has to be great for ice types to have a freezing cold pool just for themselves. And seems like Icy Heart here is starting to melt." Luna teased, but in a more friendly tone than usual.

"Too bad, right? We'll have to come up with another nickname if that's the case." Dust said with a big toothy smile and chuckling. Nox joined into the laughter, and Jake just blocked out all the noise they were making.

"Ok. Our room is room four, twenty six. When we get out of the elevator, turn to the left. I'll wait for Serge.." Daniel informed them while the machine got them up to their floor.

By the time everyone had gotten on, Serge was the only one that was left on the bottom floor, with Eric, Zed, Nox, Dust, Dark and Radius taking that one elevator where he couldn't fit in because of his size. Needless to say, the ride up was incredibly awkward for all of them. "Well… if Serge was here, he'd probably be making a joke about a sausage party…" Nox commented, earning him a few interesting glances from basically everyone else in the lift, including pokémon that weren't even part of the group.

"Heh. He sure has conversation for everywhere." Dust said, chuckling. "How hard is it to have some silence time with him around?" He dared to ask.

"Actually… it's pretty much impossible. It's fun though!" The fire type responded. Once the rather awkward ride finished, they headed towards the room, and now Serge was the only one left alone. When the doors open, he found himself sandwiched between the humans coming out of the elevator and those going in, and didn't really know what to do at all, eventually pushing his way in. However, because of his large volume, he found himself stuck in between all of those humans, unable to even spread his wings… and it slowly started getting to him, because the elevator stopped at every floor, with even more people going in and out, giving him just instants to stretch before he was once again stuck in there.

To make matters worse, he was always the centre of attention: he was the only pokémon in that elevator, or at least the only one who was visible, and they were all looking at him like a pack of hungry wolves, probably because of the wounds on his chest, which told that he was both a veteran fighter, given how well he was handling it, at that he was also weakened for a previous battle. And this was all getting to him, and he could've sworn that as the elevator went higher and higher, the space got smaller and smaller, and tried to lift his head but found that it bumped against the ceiling of the elevator.

He started to get extremely nervous and anxious, and ended up spreading his wings, surprising and eliciting complaints from the humans, as he started pushing against the walls: the whole place was starting to get smaller, and he was freaking out, his breathing quickening as he looked around, feeling terrible. It was during this crazy freakout state that he noticed he was on the fourth floor, and immediately darted out the elevator, slammed against the opposite wall and then turned around, covering as much space as possible and looking at the elevator as if it had just tried to kill him.

"Hmm… Claustrophobia, buddy?" Daniel asked the bird as he saw him like that, kneeling by his side. The Pidgeot looked at the human, nodding slowly, still coming down from all of that. "Heh. Get Dust in a small room and lock the door. He'll be like you in one minute." The human said, trying to lighten the mood for the avian and then tried to help him get up." Why do you think he got an entire basement just for himself as a room?" The human chuckled. "Let's get to the room so you can have some fresh air at the balcony and maybe get some water." The human added.

Serge did just that, not trying to say anything, but instead bowing his head lightly to thank him, and then followed Daniel to the room. Once they reached the door, it was left open while, inside, Clara was fixing everyone in place, Natalie and Hadrim helping her how they could. It was always like that, the men of the house do the carry while the woman works inside putting everything in the right place, it was like some kind of woman only perk, they knew where everything had to be even if it's the first time they see it, and at the same time they managed to fit everything and have some extra space. "Well, everything's here. Even the car." He said, leaving the pokeball and they keys on top of the desk by the entrance.

"And everything is almost in place. We'll be done in a few minutes if we all keep at it… Dark, you've got an entire month to study, leave the book." Clara said to the Zoroark seeing him taking his book out of his bag, the bipedal fox just looked at her and let it over the TV table for later, "Ichiro and Dust, leave the console for now and put the books on the shelves." She said, the other two sinking down slightly but obeying, Starting to fill up an empty shelf with books, taking off the decorations on it, that Hadrim put into one of the empty cabinets.

With everyone doing something, everything was in place in only one hour, and it was only one in the mid day, so they had the whole afternoon to enjoy the pools, or do whatever they wanted to do. "Ok, guys. From now on, do what you want." Clara announced once all the work was done. Immediately everyone went to relax… and some stomachs started to protest for food, namely Emily's, who blushed a bit for that but then, as the others started having a similar reaction, it turned into a bit of a funny moment. "I think we should eat first before doing anything else." Ichiro proposed with a hand on his own tummy and chuckling a bit.

"Yeah, I agree… some food would be nice!" Lucy agrees. "Come on, last one there is a rotten exeggutor!" She then zipped out of the room and down the stairs, while Zed sighed and asked Serge for help, but the Pidgeot just laid on the bed and rested, trying to come down from all the "excitement" from before.

"Let him rest, Zed. He just got a bad moment in the elevator." Dani said to the Zorua, then asked Serge if he wanted to eat something that they could bring him before going off to the Hotel's dining hall, since by the hour lunch shift was up. Serge just lifted a dismissive wing, saying that he'd go for a bite later, and Eric picked up Zed and left the room, followed by the rest as they went down to the dining hall, officially beginning their long anticipated vacational trip.

* * *

 **Eric: Aaaaaand that's it! Something you want to add bro?**

 **Ray: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG! back to almost thirty pages per chapter? heheh noice! Anyways I'm glad you don't let your characters here for resting between chapters and instead leave them frozen in story til next chapter comes out, if not we'll have Lucy frying us alive for that cheap shot you made Jake pull out.**

 **Radius: that can be solved you know?**

 **Ray: eeeeh… yeah well whatever. Long chapter, nicely packed up… Seems like the guys are getting some days for themselves finally. They deserve it and they'll have it… even if i gotta use my writer powers and create a barrier around the fucking island to avoid anyone coming in to bother.**

 **Eric: But you all know that this will not last… and no barrier is going to prevent that. Still, expect another chapter full of shenanigans! And with that out of the way: see ya all next time!**

 **Ray: We hope you enjoyed this chapter everyone, stay put for next one now that we don't have that much work to do and we'll be waiting your reviews with hype! Rad and Ray off here! byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**


	15. Chapter 14 - Unwinding

**Eric: What's this? A new chapter that didn't take a full month to release?! *gasp* WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!**

 **Ray: Yeah yeah. Don't get too hyped I'm working double still… eeeh no spam… Whatever! This is done in what? one less week? half time? either way: yoohoo less time between chapters! honestly this was startin to look like some kind of series that are coming out recently and take a month (or two) to be released while you eat your nails because of the damn suspense of last cliffhanger!**

 **Eric: And I have exams coming up, so… yeah, we may not be able to pump out the next chapter as fast as we managed to do so with this one… Sorry about that.**

 **Eric: Well, true enough… anyways, since there isn't anything of note comment on, let's get on with the reviews! First of all, my good friend WesternFail, who has a fairly good idea of what that substance is, hmmm yes… For those who have read the first fic, you know EXACTLY what that was and how dangerous it can be. And yaay, vacational trip! I'm the type of guy who has everything ready the night prior and then leaves the next morning and does not look back, even if I did in fact forget something I'll be like "Aaaaah whatever" (even if I moan about it the entire trip). And yes, car trips are pure agony, guess Jake should've given out some of that sleep powder to everyone else too, huh?**

 **Ray: Well Dark took it to study a bit… wonder why all of a sudden he's so interested?**

 **Eric: We'll see where that leads… now, Luchux… I really don't know what else you could've meant with that… And no, Elly isn't pregnant, and if you read this chapter you'll see why…**

 **Ray: Eh getting out of topic with Ichiro's consoles… Heh well Just saying Ichiro is not using the same console to play the pokémon game that he does to play the other game. I hope this isn't confusing. Is it a Game of AHR? well, judge it yourselves, there is a detail in the chapter that says if it is that story or another. Personally I hold PMD Explorers on my list of masterpieces and will do it forever! and when they do die… I'll do a proper burial *trumpets sounding***

 **Eric: Zlaxe, it is great to see you're back with us! My warmest welcome for you, and thank you for the lengthy review about many things in general with the fic!**

 **Ray: sorry but I gotta say this: THANK YOU for going deeper talking about the Yorlin, REALLY!**

 **Eric: I'm pretty happy that you find the concept of Team Star's family enthralling, since it is something that I've been trying to push forward as of late, and no, they don't have full names in that regard. They each have their own full names, but they dislike using them because of plot reasons or straight up do not remember them (or in Nox's case, never had one). And as for The Pursuer (that is the official name), they did slightly forget because of everything that happened in between, but it sure brought itself back into the limelight, didn't it?**

 **Ray: I think the "HOX" was already named at some point… maybe I'm just crazy. Don't swear to that bastard Arceus! He'll discover us and game over!**

 **About the characters, I should try to make more people like the Kaiser, and not only on "twitter" comments on the TV for a new of a lot of Pokémon starved to death… We'll see how that goes… or not? Errrr I'm not sure. Dust and Emily *feels the stab* awh that's gonna HURT! I have to say, some of my characters do remember this fact even if they don't show it, won't say who tho, even then There is still to be decided how this will end, for now It will be a heartbreaking moment or a moment of top happiness… only time will say… when the moment arrives…**

 **Dailos Arceus… Heh who had made Arceus not be the condescending God of this world? Well He used to be, as Kaylani said. Speacking of which! hehe Yeah well… they are both related to the seas somehow so I thought they'll make a nice couple hehe, and yup they've had a lot of Phione! Yay!**

 **And my favorite! The new kind of my world… a Dead kind! You'll know more about it in the future hehe, and… don't let appearances fool you, are you sure that this five are Yorlin? I mean… one of them is literally molten lava!**

 **Eric: And finally, our friend Hinebras, the regular reviewer that was in the Spanish version. We are sorry that we had to cut that off, but it really does save us a lot of time and pain: had we had to translate this chapter to Spanish it would've taken us a good month to get this one out, and it would've been horrible. I hope you understand our decision, as painful as it might have been. And yes, Gherard did catch a break… but Nashandra wasn't exactly happy about that, now was she?**

 **Nox the thing about them leaving the house: the Pursuer can't trace them because they aren't leaving traces tany traces to begin with. He lost their trail after they were teleported by Hadrim, and only found them because of a stroke of luck as he ran into Adam and Dante, who may very well be dead… So no, they aren't putting anyone in danger by going on vacation because they made sure that they can't be followed or tracked, and also the fact that the last time they fought, The Pursuer was also heavily wounded at the end of the fight (it had to stitch together his entire right side, courtesy of a rather well aimed strike from Serge), so going to encounter Team Star in that state would've assured his defeat. They knew this, so they decided to take the chance and unwind. And regarding the pokéballs and teleportation: they didn't necessarily need to use the pokeballs for the luggage itself, Team Star hates/fears the pokeballs because of the articles Jake keeps finding about them being "enslavement devices" which is something I firmly believe actually goes down in the games and anime (my headcanon, don't like it, fite me) and as for teleportation, the hotel was on another island entirely, so teleporting wasn't an option because it could've done some serious damage to Hadrim's mind and also quite possibly left a trail for the Pursuer to follow, and that's a huge no-no.**

 **Also, I intend to explore these differences in pokémon and human rights soon enough, just saying.**

 **Ray: Please don't make me write a declaration of rights… The game sounds familiar… I know right? *Eye twitch and clearly forced smile***

 **Gender ratio for Eevee and Riolu: Hmm… That doesn't prevent you from getting a female Riolu does it? Or hell you find lots of male Eevee before finding only one female! Or is it my luck?**

 **If what bothers Natalie were fleas, the three humans would've bathe her for five hours straight until they made sure she was clean of that pest.**

 **Dark's bike: … Ya got me, mate…**

 **Pokeballs, pokeballs, pokeballs… What could I say without spoiling? I think I already made the characters talk about Pokeballs at some point… Not gonna get into that again. You'll know how the electric pool works in this chapter. About the game I already answered that.**

 **Eric: The sleep powder gag had two purposes: one, to showcase that Jake does have a more down to earth side that approaches him to the rest of the team, while also serving as a rather funny moment, but also to showcase something about Serge's character: he knows what recreational drugs are and do. Why does he know that? … you'll know soon enough.**

 **Ray: That soon enough might be next year, but the point still stands, hehehehe.**

* * *

Chapter 14

Unwinding

It wouldn't be long now. Soon it'll happen and it'll see it. Too bad that the house was going to suffer this phenomenon as well. The covered figure looked at the house for a moment. Then at the pocket watch it had in one hand. Just thirty more seconds. The air in this world was… foul, dirty and, it stunk to his nose. How could anything live with that pollution floating everywhere? It couldn't understand that, but it wasn't there for that. It wanted to know what was happening with space between the two worlds, it was hurting its counterpart so much that it was getting harder to cope with the pain. They needed to solve this before the situation got even worst.

It waited just a few more seconds. Then, all of a sudden, tears of energy started to appear on the floor and, in mere instants, it was blinded. When it's vision cleared, it smelled a familiar air, cleaner and also, it could hear the chirping and the Pokémon calls in the distance. It opened its eyes and looked around. as predicted, the house had been teleported, with their sleeping occupants, and with the creature. Now showing it's true form. Silver wings spreading to stretch as silver scales shone under the dusk's light.

"Hmf… So this is it?" It asked, its voice sounding deep and calm. He might not withstand the power of space, but he knew what he had felt around him. "You've felt it too? We must fix this… or there won't be need for Dailos to complete his plan." It said as it rose from the floor and flew to the skies.

The others had also felt it, and had heard him. They shared the same mind after all. Now that the problem had been identificated, they had to solve it, and there was only one way for it, but it needed preparation.

Meanwhile, back at the fabric of space, the black hole was still open and held by the concentrating creature in front of it. "Why did you had to show that to the Zoroark?" He asked, his voice sounding less deep, but still male. "If you wouldn't-"

"If I wouldn't that creature would've found the house with everyone sleeping, get rid of their night guard and slaughtered everyone. And that's for uncovering just one branch. I saw every line possible without the intervention and it all ended horribly for all of them, Square." The recently arrived said.

"Even then, look at what you've caused Chrono…" The sitting and concentrating one, Square, answered.

"I know what I did. And it's too late to change it. It was the best of two evils for everyone." Chrono ended the conversation there, and Square decided to concentrate on the Black Hole. "We should focus on fixing the space mendling of the two worlds before the lack of stability makes them explode."

"How much time do we have?"

"Enough." Chrono simply said. Square groaned.

"You'd say that even if we only have one second left!"

"If that was the case, the worlds would've exploded already. And before you keep on protesting, if I use my power to see the time branches here, I would cause a mess we don't want to happen."

"Then why did you come?"

"I knew you wanted to talk about the vision and now that it is out of your mind, let's concentrate on more urgent matters. I'll go watch over everyone." And with that, Chrono was gone from the fabric, leaving behind a sighing Square, used to his counterpart's antics.

* * *

Children screeching. Speakers blaring music. Pokémon roaring. Humans talking. It was pure chaos, and clearly the opposite of what everyone had expected from a vacational resort. Of course, it was to be expected that the hotel would be anything but quiet with how many guests there were, but the noise levels were almost absurd, too loud to even hear one's thoughts, and yet they were all participating and contributing to this contamination to some degree. It was early in the afternoon, the sun was beginning its slow descent, but the hotel was bustling with activity, contrary to what everyone had theorized. They thought that after lunch, most, if not all, would go for a brief afternoon nap, but no, apparently the only one around that whole pool that was actually napping was Serge, who had miraculously fallen asleep amidst that chaos, and was snoring away in a hammock hanging above the deck-chairs, tied to the two palmtrees.

Eric was currently away from where the group had decided to settle down, standing on a stool and talking with the bartender, trying to convince him that he was more than 18 years old and could in fact ask for a mojito for he and Elly, who was padding in the pool without a care in the world, trying to not get swarmed by the sheer amount of kids playing water polo, albeit she was having a hard time not attracting the attention of humans and pokémon alike because of her size: the former because she looked much bigger than normal and most were trainers, who probably wanted to challenge Ichiro, which he always had to turn down… while the latter were probably attracted to her rear end, in which case they would somehow swallow a considerable amount of water that suddenly shot up and right into their mouths.

Zed was trying to convince Lucy to at the very least get her feet wet, and so far he was actually making some progress, having managed to get the Lucy two steps down the stone steps, with water up to her chin, although she was already panicking, even though she had floaters in all four of her legs and was physically impossible for her to drown, whenever she tried to step down and didn't find any floor underneath she started panicking badly, and quickly went back, repeating the process indefinitely. Jake was lying on his back on one of the deck-chairs with a fancy glass of juice in his right hand and an open book in his left, keeping the juice cold thanks to his own ice, the lower half of the cup encased in a thin layer of crystalline frost, ensuring the temperature was perfect for his own tastes.

The Kaiser weren't that much scattered. Dani was badly holding back on Eric's attempts at getting a drink while enjoying a nice alcohol free mojito himself, Luca and Clara were sunbathing on ground hammocks with their sunglasses on, they even toasted, hitting their glasses gently as they enjoyed the afternoon; Radius was enjoying himself resting on the swallows of the electric pool, also wondering how was Zed able to withstand the static that was even making him feel tingly. The trick of this pool was that it had some lightning attracting panels that storaged the natural electricity their bodies let out, this prevented the water from getting so charged up with electricity that it resulted impossible to use even for electric types. It was impossible to get rid of all the electricity, but the charge was harmless to the intended users of this pool and the stored electricity was used to keep the heater that heat up the fire type's pool on. Zed just didn't notice them because he was fairly used to getting shocked by this point.

Shade was swimming calmly on the main pool, diving every now and then, Natalie was calmly chatting with Radius, the smaller Eevee laying down on a hammock by the pool, having an umbrella to give her some shade so she didn't have to endure the sun directly on her; Dark was under the same umbrella, laying down on the same hammock as his sister and devouring the book he's been with the whole day; Dust was, for once, sharing the pool with the Ice types, that Riolu sure had a knack for ice cold water. Emily was in the hot pool area, curious seeing fire type Pokemon and some other types, even humans, enjoying the hot water. She deep a paw into the water and retreated it instantly. ' _They are crazy if they get into this scalding water!_ ' She thought as she went to the main pool and did the same, cooling of her almost burnt paw as she panted to refresh herself. Luna on her side was enjoying the same pool the pervy Eevee had left after almost burning her paw, letting herself relax even over the noises of everyone around.

Finally, Nox was the one that just didn't know what to do: he didn't feel like going in the water, since it was freezing for his body temperature, didn't feel like sleeping and couldn't drink and didn't have anyone to talk to. Because of this, he felt kind of left out, but that wasn't going to stop him from doing one thing that he liked to think he was good at: trying to hit on girls. He walked up to a Growlithe from behind, chuckling to himself.

' _I think a fellow fire type will be the safest way to start!_ ' With that confidence, he cleared his throat and called her attention. "Hey there, pretty! Your beautiful red fur stands out against the clear water, and the sunshine makes your beautiful curves even more attractive… what's your name?" His sudden introduction surprised the Growlithe quite a deal, though she couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh my gosh, are you serious right now? Do I look that desperate?" She asks no one in particular, though Nox doesn't know what she's talking about. "Well, anyways, you look like a cute kid: my name's Amanda, nice to meet you, little one!" Nox was about to retort and say that he wasn't a kid, when all of a sudden he was interrupted by the sight of a massive Garchomp walking over to them, and once he was right on top of them he looked at Amanda, then glared at the Houndour.

"Something going on, sweetie?"

"Oh, nothing, Alex! Just this cute little kid asking me my name, is all! He's trying to flirt I think." She giggles.

"With you?!" The Garchomp roars with laughter, and Nox also chuckles awkwardly, realizing that maybe he hadn't thought this through. Then, they both shoot a scary glare at him, and the next thing he knows the fire and dark type is flying through the air and crashing into the pool, while the couple just chuckle together and kiss, before walking away from the pool as Nox resurfaces, looking really bummed out. The ones that saw this were Emily from the main pool and Dust from the ice type one. Luna could see it too, but she decided to ignore him, as hard as it was to not enjoy this little show he was pulling.

He swore something under his breath about bad luck, and then went over to the edge of the pool and climbed out… only to find himself face to face with a white furred Vulpix, which he found absolutely stunning. But before he could even speak, she pressed a paw on his head. "Oh please, I have seen your miserable attempt at courting a female: you're just another male thirsty for a female's touch, nothing I should bother with." And with that she pressed down harder and returned him to the water, then scoffed and walked around the edge of the water. And as he popped his out again from the water, he noticed how she was looking at Jake.

The Sneasel was too absorbed in his reading of "The Art of War", by Tsun Tzu, to even realize that there was someone looking at him. The Vulpix groomed her fur and approached him. "Why, hello there, handsome…" She introduced herself this way, and Jake only lowered his book, gave her an inquiring look and rose an eyebrow. "I have noticed that you're reading quite a complex book… You must be quite intelligent to be capable of understanding such a book."

He sat up, resting the book and the glass besides him. "But of course. Why are you interested in this detail, if I may ask?" She smiled as she had caught his attention, giving him her sexiest look.

"I was wondering if you wanted to exchange some words… it isn't often I find such compatible partners in these parts…" Nox's jaw hit the water. Jake was going to get a female before he could! This could not be happening right now! Dust had the eye on the vulpix, and not exactly for her looks, he just thought she deserved a prank after being that way with his friend, even so he was smirking, expecting the Sneasel to give her one of his extremely smart retorts and tell her off, Emily giggled as she was expecting the exact same thing. However, the Sneasel only smiled and looked at the Vulpix.

"You're quite beautiful indeed, and your speech mannerisms are proper and formal…" She blushes. "But I highly doubt I would find myself entertained with such a skank. Your appearance is that of a muse, but your heart is that of a witch. I have no desire to engage in conversation with someone so… "thirsty" for an intelligent male's touch." She felt offended, insulted and utterly humiliated in every possible sense, and started screaming at the Sneasel, but he simply returned to his reading and she scoffed and walked away, shouting that she was just too good for him.

Dust had to hold his laughter seeing this and couldn't pull out his thought prank not that it would make her any more angry.

Nox sighed in relief, mainly because he himself had dodged one hell of a bullet, and also because he was still in the clear: he could potentially score before Jake did. He got out of the water and shook the water off of his fur, but he was then stopped as he felt someone caressing his side tenderly. "My my, just look at these muscles… You are quite the stud, aren't you?" The voice came from behind him, and it was distinctly female. He smiled to himself.

"Finally, someone who has noticed my natural beauty… Only a beautiful female could notice such handsomeness, am I-" As he turned around to face the voice behind him, he noticed that it was indeed a female, so that was a relief… but made his blood freeze was that he was talking with a Jinx.

"Oooooooh! I cannot believe it! You say such beautiful things and you haven't even seen me!" Her body shook as if it was made out of jelly, severely disturbing him. "We must be star crossed lovers! A match made in heaven!" She continued, and Nox started backing away.

"I… uh… Sorry, miss, but… I already have a girlfriend!" He responded, but she just shook her head.

"What does it matter! Now come here, you handsome devil!" She lunged for him and he screamed at the top of his lungs, attracting the attention of everyone who knew him, and he turned around and hightailed it out of there, running past a Riolu carrying a pair of Mojitos for both he and his mate.

"Nox!" He shouted as he recognized the fire type, jumping backwards and missing both he and the pursuing Jinx by a few inches, lifting a strong cloud of dust as they darted further down the pool area. As they disappeared from view he could only look at the last place they had been visible, then look at his mate, who was padding up to him in an almost cute manner, then placed her paws on the edge of the pool and looked at him.

"What was his deal?" She asked, and he only shrugged in response, unsure of what was even going on. Meanwhile, Nox was running to conserve his dignity, and probably his life, and eventually found himself looking at a lonesome Ninetales, who was probably single.

"This is my chance!" He quickly dived towards her and hid behind her, the Ninetales looking at him. "Hey there, honey! I'm here! You look absolutely ravishing!" He shouted, obviously faking, but also hoping that this unfortunate series of events lead to them sharing a moment that could potentially develop into a relationship. The Jinx stopped in her tracks, and looked at Nox, sad.

"Awww… why do all the hotties like you always swing that way?" And with that, the ice type turned around and walked away, looking at the ground. Nox's victory was short lived however, as he processed the Jinx's last words in his head, and then slowly rose to look up at the Ninetales… only to be pounced by said Ninetales.

"Well now, look what the Jinx dragged in…" The voice was distinctly masculine. "I could you up right now…" The bigger fire type kissed Nox's cheek.

An extremely loud scream echoed in the area, and every single member of Team Star and the Kaiser family recognized the screaming, and everyone looked at the source in a mixture of confusion, bewilderment and downright hilarity as Nox dashed from around the corner and in the blink of an eye dived into the normal pool, just as the Ninetales came around the corner, looking around to try and find his "prey". However, even after asking a certain couple of a Riolu and an Eevee, and later on interrogating a Zorua and a terrified, yet incredibly amused Shinx, the Ninetails gave up and left, swearing he'd find Nox sooner or later.

"He can't run forever…" He muttered as he walked off, and as soon as he was out of view everyone who had been working so hard to keep a straight face started chuckling, and Eric coughed and kicked Nox's head, who was underwater, and the Houndour resurfaced, his face of pure shock and terror, and yet extremely relief making everyone bust their rears laughing.

"You guys… saved my ass." He muttered, resting his head on the pool's edge.

Lucy couldn't help but laugh harder at that one. "Damn straight we did… Like, literally saved your ass from being stretched open!" Everyone understood the joke immediately, and they all laughed even harder, Nox giving them an unamused look and then slowly sinking his head beneath the water, the bubbles of oxygen shortly stopping afterwards, as if he was drowning himself in the water. He resurfaced a few seconds later though, a smile on his face. He had to admit, that one was pretty good.

Dust, Emily and Luna were laughing so hard that their bellies hurt and the two that were in a pool had to come out of it, not being able to hold their laughter at all at this display. Serge had been wide awake from the first "attempt", thanks to Jake waking him up by throwing a well aimed pebble, and Jake himself was openly chuckling, holding back his rather strange laugh.

"You really laughing at this?" Radius asked them, having come out of the pool himself just to approach them.

"Oh, come on, bro! That's hilarious!" Dust said as he kept laughing.

"Yeah. Humiliation is always funny when you are not the one involved, right?" The Jolteon said, suddenly empathic with the Houndour, and those words actually made his older brother stop laughing.

Jake frowned and looked at the Houndour. "When you consider that he was actively asking for it, you kind of lose whatever empathy you could've had… and besides, this is usually how things are with this team: yesterday, it was I who was laughed at, now, Nox has gotten "the short end of the stick", and who knows, perhaps Lucy will be next, or Zed, who knows." After that he went back to his reading, Serge nodding and agreeing with him.

"He's right, we kinda just laugh at whatever shenanigans go down, and considering how weird we all are, it happens more often than not." Serge said and then got up. "Watch out below!" He called, making sure there was no one there, and went over to where Nox was resting.

Rad smiled again after this and shook his head. "Ok, you got me. That was fucking good!" He chuckled as the fun had gone down a tad. "I had to come out of the pool before overcharging the panels because of the laugh I had."

"Then why're you busting us?" Dust asked, almost pouting.

"Heh. Just pulling your bald leg." Radius let out, smirking hard and clearly teasing Dust, who let out a frustrated groan once he caught up to what the other had said.

"Will you let that go!?" Rad chuckled a bit and Shade giggled hearing this. Emily approached her since she didn't get what they were talking about. All the while, Dust was fuming and protesting to Radius, even trying to get back at the Jolteon in some way.

"What's going on?" The brown furred Eevee asked to the shiny, who just giggled more and told her a little story about Dust and a very vengeful Syther hair stylist: Basically Dust tried to pull a prank on the bug type and it rewarded him cutting off all his fur. Rad had to go look for him, too bad he also wanted to pull a prank on his brother as revenge for one in particular he'd been the victim of, and it was a golden opportunity for him. Rad made Dust walk across town dressed like a very girly ballerina, only further embarrassing the Shiny Riolu. By the point she ended, Shade was holding back a fresh laughing fit.

"Mom still has some pictures of that. My Arceus, it was great!" She said. Jake smiles as he imagines the Riolu in that context, and Eric shivers as he imagines himself in that situation, then quickly forgets about it, knowing his colleagues would never do something like that to him… Either way, Nox climbed out of the water for real, but Serge had plans for the Houndour, placing his wing on the fire type and cheering him up.

"Hey, c'mon don't look like that, there's plenty of fish in the sea… besides, I'm about to go show you a master does it." This immediately brightens Nox's face, and everyone else either groans or rolls their eyes, knowing this was probably going to end in disaster.

On the Kaiser Side, some chuckled, others sighed and then was certain Zoroark, who simply shrugged, since anything they did wasn't his concern and he had another priority at the moment, one Natalie wanted to tear out of his paws and throw into the electric pool.

"Oh, zip it you lot! You'll see how it goes well! Now c'mon, let's start easy: let's go to the bar." Both of them walk off, leaving everyone else behind. Once they're out of earshot, Zed, of all pokémon, speaks up.

"Twenty poké they somehow make everything worse."

"Oh come on, that's such an easy bet, I'm not even going to call it." Eric laughs as he says this, and they all go back to doing what they were doing before Nox's failure.

"I don't know about you but **nothing** will prevent me from enjoying this show. This is better than one of those TV series that pretend to be funny and the only thing they do is insult everything." Luna said as she trotted behind the two males without them seeing her. ' _If only I could have some popcorn!_ ' She thought with an internal giggle.

Meanwhile, Nox and Serge reached the bar as the Pidgeot gave the Houndour tips, which he was mentally writing down. "Now, first of all, you gotta scout out the perimeter and check for possible targets. Now, take a glance at that bar." Nox does just that. "The humans are immediately out, and do you see that Seviper? She looks absolutely ravaging, doesn't she? But look at the way she's moving her glass around." There was a certain expertise in her movements, almost calculated. "She's definitely experienced and knows that there's hunters watching her. I'd say she's near that Vulpix from before when it comes to the Nymphe-o-meter." Nox chuckles and looks away, Serge smiling as he kept him under his wing, both physically and metaphorically.

"Now, look at that one…" He motions at an Infernape who is staring away from them and moving her rear, showing a bored expression. "She looks, lonely, doesn't she? Wrong, look at where she's staring." The Houndour does just that and notices it: a massive Marshtomp was talking with the bartender and getting drinks. They waited for a few minutes and he approached the Infernape, the fire type grabbing a glass and making a small toast with him, then wrapping her arm around his neck. "Told ya."

"Wow… How do you know so much?" Nox was legitimately curious, and Serge only chuckled, saying that it was all experience. The Houndour nodded, then looked at the bar again, and noticed a bored looking Smeargle who was actually alone, with the exception of trio of female pokémon: a Raichu, a Lopunny and a Kricketune, all of them laughing and giggling together, while she just sighed and looked at the almost empty glass. "What about that one?" Nox asks and lifts his paw slightly, making sure Serge got it right.

He also noticed her, and inspected her for a few seconds, before nodding. "Nice call, now… watch." He approaches, and Nox sneaks up and sits besides Serge on the bar to try and listen in to their conversation. "You look bored." He pointed out, calling the attention of the normal type, who simply looked away, blushing. "Feeling kinda left out because your friends got their men to talk about?" She looked at him, her eyes widening, and he just chuckled. "Don't worry, it happens to a lot of girls. Want to try and surprise them? Let me invite you." His proposal is received with a negative response, but he insists.

"Oh well… Sure. I just don't like being left out like this…" She says, talking behind her friend's backs.

"Yeah, it sucks. Same thing happened to me when I was younger: I was a pretty rebellious child, didn't get along with a lot of pokémon… though I still found my place as a writer." This calls the Smeargle's attention, who smiles.

"A writer? How interesting, me too! Although…" She looks down at the ground, blushing and swinging her tail between her legs. "I'm kind of a novice really… My prose isn't too good."

He chuckles. "It's the one thing that torments most writers for the longest time, you just need to find a style that you like and refine it. Some like it dynamic and full of action and verbs, others prefer adjectives and descriptions, and some like it in between… You can't appease all, but you can appease a large group of readers if you specialize yourself." He explained to her his own struggle to reach his own recognizable style, and she narrated her worries and also where her interest for writing came from, and slowly but surely and thanks to a cup for each that Serge had paid for, they actually had quite a good conversation about writing.

"Woah… Now look at that!" They were all distracted from their conversation as her three friends were now looking at them and smiling. "Amy's actually talking with a male! That's a surprise!" The Lopunny laughs, and Amy can't help but blush.

"And not just any catch… Look at those wounds on his body, he must be a super strong fighter! Nice!" The Kricketune said between giggles, actually complimenting the Smeargle for having attracted the Pidgeot.

"He's also a writer, you know? He's super smart!" She looks at him with bright eyes, and Serge only laughs.

"I fight only with my feathers and quills. They are quite lethal weapons… but one must never underestimate the might of words and wit!" He does a small pose, with him spreading his right wind and touching his forehead with his left, and all four girls scream in delight as he does this. Eventually, their boyfriends come, and the Smeargle leaves with them, feeling extremely happy, not before telling the Pidgeot her room's number so that he could come by later and talk with her.

Once they were gone and out of sight, Serge slowly turned around, placed his wings on the counter and gave Nox a cocky smile. "Told ya to leave it to a master!" Nox's eyes were bright throughout the entire thing, and pleaded for Serge to teach him more. "Fine, but we've got to change location. I'll have to go meet up with that Smeargle girl later, and help her out with her writing too, I feel like I must help a fellow writer in need."

"You just got lucky." Luna said as she rolled her eyes, partly annoyed that she didn't get much fun from this moment.

"Oh zip it." Serge said only this as he stepped by her and booped her nose with his wing as he walked away, sidestepping and lifting his wing as she playfully tried to bite it. He smiled and then they moved locations, moving over from the bar and through the tables and chairs littered across that area, which was in front of a stage, where some games and competitions were currently being held. Those didn't interest the Pidgeot though… yet. Instead, he turned his attention to some steps, below the which there was currently a heated match of ping pong going on, and standing at the top of these steps was a Staraptor with her back turned to them. All of a sudden, one of the participants of the ping pong match hit the ball with incredible strength, and it smashed against the other side and bounced off toward the bird, hitting her in the face.

"Oh snap… Now's my chance!" Serge said, and quickly darted up the steps and to her side, placing his paws on her shoulders. "Hey, you alright?" He asked, truly concerned for her, and then looked at the humans playing down below. "Watch where you're aiming with that, you brutes!" They couldn't understand him, but they could tell he was angry, and apologized before going to pick up the ball, meanwhile, Serge took care of the Staraptor. "Now, let's see here…" He got a look at her face, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, thank Arceus, your beautiful face is in a perfect state… want to go for a walk to forget that accident?"

The Pidgeot then noticed that something was terrible off, and by the time he actually noticed it was already too late. The Staraptor looked up at him and talked. "Oh yes, please… you look handsome yourself too, hot stuff…" The voice was distinctly male, and Serge paled as he realized the severity of his mistake.

"Uuuh, actually, I just remembered I have to go somewhere… I… Ow, my wing! Wing cramp!" He exclaimed, using his go-to excuse for leaving since he was sixteen years old and had actually gotten to experience the sheer pain that a wing cramp brought to his life. However, this only served to dig a deeper hole, as the Staraptor took a renewed interest in the Pidgeot, examining the wing.

"Oh, you poor thing! You got your wings and chest all wounded in a fight! Why, that's no good! Why don't we go to my room… and I help you heal them up?" There's a certain sultry tone in his voice, and that's what triggers Serge's mind to go into panic mode.

' _Nope nope nope nope! I'm out. I'm_ _ **fucking out!**_ ' "No! I like, really gotta go!" He says and suddenly runs down the steps almost at light speed, and quickly darts off into the hotel, and the Staraptor takes flight and follows suit.

"Come back here, I need you heal yooooooouuuu~!" And with that, they both disappeared from their sight, leaving a bewildered Houndour and a rather shocked Vulpix.

"Well… shit." Was all he managed to say.

Now poor Luna had to step on her muzzle to avoid roaring in laughter as she tried to hold back as hard as she could, eyes closed and tearing up as she laid down on the couch from where she's been watching the Pidgeot. "Ooooooh! There goes the master." She said after she managed to recover from the fit. "How the hell do you recognize females from males where you lived at?" She asked the Houndour. "I myself can tell that and don't even need to look between their paws for that." She said, actually genuinely curious about this.

"Is it because of the smell?" He threw a random guess, and was honestly surprised to see that Luna answered with a nod. He sighed. "Where we come from, it's considered disrespectful to go sniffing about the entire place… so nobody does that." ' _And there's also the fact that, as Jake said, our senses of smell are probably less well developed than theirs'_.' He obviously didn't say that last part, because that would've raised some questions.

"Then no wonder your noses are as atrofiated as a human's." She compared. "Hadn't you noticed? I guess not since you were more focused on listening to 'Master of flirting, Serge' I've been smelling all the time since we're here, and don't actually need to get near anybody to know what they are." She looked at the ones that were playing the games, seeing some Pokémon. "See there? How many male and female Pokémon you think are there?" She asked him.

Nox shook his head, even trying to sniff the air. There just wasn't any way to tell, albeit it was unfair to say that their noses were as clogged up as humans'.

"The Pokémon playing there are just five females, the other ten are males." She said, looking at him in the eye, only her nose flaring up as she smelled with a bit more of intensity.

"Look, I just can't tell… maybe it's because of this shitty air you guys have in this place… like seriously, ever since we got here you can barely properly smell nature, it's all covered in those fumes or whatever the hell." He complains, which was a fair explanation as to why none of them could really properly smell anything.

"True enough. I also don't know how people and Pokémon can even be onto that shit." She said. "Wanna get out of here and get some fresh air?" She offered.

"Yeah, sure. The smell of the sea actually kinda reminds me of what it's like back home." And with that, they both walked off together and had quite a heartfelt conversation. For once Luna holding back her remarks and teasings and actually enjoying nice company.

* * *

"Nat. Give me back the book." Dark asked his sister, who just sat her but over his study book.

"No way, lil' bro. You've been studying the whole day. Which ok is something rare for you but you are missing on a nice day, and you have a month before even attempting to sign up in a driving school." She said to him, yet he insisted, and she kept being stubborn.

"Come on you two, can't you leave arguing for later?" Ichiro asked coming to them with his arms behind his head.

"I won't give the book back until he starts having fun." Natalie said.

"Well Natalie, you can't just force others to do what they don't want to." The boy said, while his eyes went to the distracted Zoroark.

"But-"

"No buts, lil' sis. Now gimme-!" The Zoroark was interrupted as suddenly the boy at his side held him and started pushing him towards the pool, managing to make him go some paces back. "What the!?" The Zoroark let out as he then started to resist the human, even his claws scratching the floor. Ichiro was promptly joined by Dust , who tried to keep the Zoroark from properly fixing his paws on the floor.

"Come on, Dark. You have to admit that Nat's right on this." The Riolu said. The both of them got the dark type to the ledge of the pool like this. Those that were on the pool where the three of them were struggling made space for the incoming event, while the Kaiser just looked on, Clara telling something about not fighting at the pool. When it was clear they were stuck, Hadrim smiled and decided to help a bit

"Into the pool you go." He whispered and kicked Dark's leg's off with his psychic, making the three youngsters fall into the pool. Ichiro surfacing first and having a hearty laugh as he breathed, then came Dust who was also laughing and holding something in one paw.

"Hey, what's that?" Radius asked seeing the item and Dust just rose it with a smirk, revealing it was what kept Dark's mane in a much more controllable shape.

When the Zoroark resurfaced his mane was totally down over him, covering his entire body behind, up front and sides, only his arms sticking out of the hair as he used them to spread a hole so he could see. The image was a bit too much, and some started laughing while others giggled and chuckled at this. Dust gave back the hair tie to the Zoroark who took it while chuckling himself. They've got him after all and he had enjoyed the struggling. "Ok, you got me." He admitted as he fixed his hair in place.

After that they started a splashing war to the which the others joined. Dust cheating a bit by making a little wave wash over them as they occupied part of the shallows of the pool, yet the Riolu kept with his own tricks, at least that way he could even get his father wet, who seemed to not want to get into the water that day, even when Luca herself sat on the steps of the pool to refresh herself. The Espeon joining in on the fun after that, and everyone enjoyed the water before deciding it was time to go back to the room and have a more calm afternoon.

* * *

Later on that night, most, if not all of the pokémon were lounging around their huge room. Since it was a suite, it looked quite luxurious: a main room with several couches and a TV, and then two rooms with two beds in them, one for a person, the other for two, and they had all scattered across these beds and the sofas and whatever they lay on in both the bedrooms and the main room itself. There were two massive wardrobes, one in each of the rooms, and opposite of the wardrobes and the beds were two huge balconies, separated by glass panes which acted like windows. Since it was night, and the dinner buffet was about to start, everyone was getting ready to go down and have dinner, and while some, like Serge, Nox or Zed, didn't look all too different, Elly was making sure her fur was groomed, same with Eric, who was trying on this "cologne" that Serge had insisted they take, and Jake was lying on the bed and reading, while Lucy watched TV with some of the Kaisers.

"Oh come on guys… can't we just go ahead? We're hungry!" Nox complained, but everyone told him that they couldn't.

"It'd be impolite for you two to already be feasting as we come into the hall. And besides, only the owners of the rooms can get a table, and this room is under the Kaiser's name, and as such, you'd only be wasting our time." Jake's rather cold response didn't persuade them, and instead proposed they go down to the arcade.

"And play with what money? As far as I know, Serge blew it talking with that Smeargle." The Pidgeot huffed as Lucy reminded him of this fact.

"Hey, she was a nice girl, ok? I may actually have something going with her." He didn't really convince anyone other than Nox with that however, both of them sitting on armchairs with their backs to the window and looking at the rest of the room.

"You're such a heartbreaker, bird brain." Dust said with a sigh and shaking his head slightly. the Riolu wasn't one for looking too fancy and, even if he had brushed his fur he preferred it a tad more wild looking, even then after taking a bath he had snagged his mother's brush and taken a bit to work his fur, which gave it quite the shine when the light fell on it. His siblings stood looking at him for a few seconds after he was done and Em did various visual checks on him, the looks almost made him blush.

Shade and Natalie had tried on various bows, the Shiny Eevee decided to go with one black with white tie and borders, if just for some fur contrast, her hide just as sparkling as her brother's after a nice caring. Natalie decided to go without any since it was just family dinner, no need to be soo much formal, and she thought herself very pretty with just some grooming and brushing. Radius simply took a bath and relayed on his static to spike some of his , keeping his head smooth, yet his white collar fur was spiked and hard, not as much as battle ready, but enough so his fur wouldn't come down easily.

Luca decided to go with a pair of matching armbands and a collar with a Sapphire on it that was imitation of Hadrim's forehead gem. The named Espeon was taking his sweet ass time to prepare. Emily had Ichiro's help to brush her pelt and then Luca helped her a bit, since she wanted to wear a bow as well, Natalie gladly sharing with her. The Lucario tried some on her, until they decided on a pure white ear bow. Dust couldn't help but whistle and let out sweet words on how she looked, making her giggle and blush slightly as she went to him and nuzzled him, the Riolu pressing noses with her and chuckling, getting a pretty mouth full of sweet words for his mate, earning a few groans as he got sickeningly sappy.

Dark was the last to take a bath, after all drying that mane took some time, one of the reasons he wanted to cut it, yet for some reason it scared him. Either way once he was done with the bath he had straightened himself and worked up his hair. Putting the hair tie at neck level and then working the rest of the mane into a thick plait that ended on a knot. his mane reaching only to just below his waist like this. When he came down he got a few looks of surprise from everyone, while his own eyes fell onto certain silver Eevee, and he completely forgot about the rest… until Natalie teased him about his hair style.

The humans dressed themselves nicely, if only to look good and that's it, Ichi with some trauser shorts and a plain white t-shirt, also a wristband. Dani had put himself on trousers, shoes and a buttoned shirt, while Clara opted for a mostly black dress that slowly went to gray at chest height. Both adult humans wore their wedding rings, she wore a chain around her neck and fake gold ear pendant adorned with black fake gems. And Team Star discovered just how sappy everyone in the Kaiser family could be.

"Hey, how do I look?" Elly looked at Eric as he asked this. He had actually straightened his fur, so he looked quite handsome in her eyes, and he smelled quite well.

"Hmmm… You look great, I love what you did with your fur here… but…" She used her powers to make it a little bit less straight. "I don't like it so straight… and I love the smell of that cologne." He smiled and gave her his wrist, where he had sprayed a bit, and she sniffed it. "Hmmm…. Ok, I like it. How do I look?" She spun around, showing that the fur around her neck and her tail had been straightened, so they didn't look like huge clusters of tangled fur, and she was actually wearing one of the ribbons they had bought a few months ago, the blue one.

"You look gorgeous." She nuzzled him as he complimented her, and he returned the affection, then began to put everything away, since they were done and waiting for the rest to finish as well.

"At this rate we're gonna lose dinner shift!" Luna commented. The Vulpix was laying down, strangely close to the other fire type present, even then she had worked herself a bit as well, a pink bow on her ear even if at first she was shy about it and he fur looked really good.

"Why do you all walk around with so much crap on your bodies. You all look like you come from Cunabula." Serge pointed out, and absolutely everyone that knew what he was referring to glared daggers at him. "I mean, you all look like you're going to go to a fucking ball in a castle or something." He was saying this as he looked at the Kaisers.

"Swear jar!" Emily chimed in as always. Serge rolled his eyes, dismissing her. He was already a grown up, she couldn't tell him what to do.

"You always fill up the swear jar, Serge." Luca joked.

"Oh, all of you, shut up!" He crosses his wings, looking through the window. He was still annoyed after the Staraptor episode, and seriously hoped that they wouldn't find him down at the dining hall... But that wasn't going to happen.

Because he was right there, in the balcony.

And he had brought along a Ninetales.

( **Mass Destruction - Persona 3** )

" **What the fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck?!** " Serge and Nox jumped out of their seats and literally went to the other side of the room as the Staraptor snuck his wing into the room through the crack they had left open to vent the room and opened the window, allowing both him and the Ninetails to step in. Jake shut the book in his claws and everyone was looking at the duo, beyond flabbergasted, and they both pointed at their respective "partners".

"Found yoooooouuu~!" They both said in a rather sensual tone, which came out as weird and downright cringeworthy, making the rest of the males shiver. "Oh, you would not **believe** how long we've been looking for you two cutie pies!"

"Uuuuh… Yeah, I can actually get a mental image… Anyways, what are you doing here?! We didn't give you our room number!" By the sound of his voice and how it cracked, one could guess that the Houndour was beyond distressed. The Ninetales chuckled.

"We just had to follow you for a bit and found out you were sharing rooms! And not only that, but with so many handsome males… and some females too." There was a certain tone of disgust when he mentioned the opposite gender, but they kept going. "And now that we're all back together, we can **really** get this party going!"

"We won't let you run away this time!" They both began walking towards them, cornered against the wardrobe and a mirror, and then they booked it through the right, running across the really confused Kaisers and in front of the TV, their "lovers" chasing after them while laughing, thinking this was all a game. The panicking guys managed to find their way back to the balcony.

"Close it! Close it! Serge **close the fucking window!** " Nox saw as they approached quickly, and Serge tried to shut it, but it was far too late, the Staraptor was quicker and in perfect health and grabbed it, yanking it open, and then they both lunged at their respective crushes. Nox quickly jumped up on the Pidgeot's back and the bird backed away against the edge of the balcony, leaning on the railing, panicking as he kept trying to push away the Staraptor that was trying to kiss him.

"Sorry, I can do guys as well, but this is not how I envisioned things!" The Pidgeot tried to defend himself, and Nox looked at him, shocked.

"Wait, you've done dudes as well?! I didn't know that!"

"You don't know a lot of things about me kiddo! Now shut up and help me!" The Ninetales jumped on top of the Staraptor and tried to grab Nox, pulling him in for a kiss, but he ducked and backed away, almost falling off in the process.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, please no! I don't want to lose my virginity like this!" The Houndour shouted, and the Ninetales cheered.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll make this as enjoyable as possible for you!"

"And since you seem to have some experience… maybe I'll go a bit harder on you!" The Staraptor and Ninetails would not let up, and the two males were panicking… that was until Serge slipped and bent backwards, and his body went over the railing, and since their two stalkers were leaning on his body, they also fell.

" **Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!** " Their shouts echoed in the night as they plummeted from the balcony and down into the pool below, ending the entire confrontation in an instant with the sound of water splashing. As everything settled, all of the pokémon in the room were beyond confused as to what the hell had just happened, and the next instant everyone ran to the railings and looked down to check on them.

( **Stop the music** )

"This is what happens when one messes with the affairs of the heart! This, ladies and gentlemen, is karma! This is divine retribution for what you two put me through early today!" The Sneasel's passionate shouting, holding back laughter, was more than enough to show that he was extremely pleased with what had happened.

"Are you alright?!" Elly asked as she leaned over the railing, legitimately concerned for them. She could only see their blurry shapes in the dark water of the normal pool, which was empty because the sun had already set and none were allowed to swim until the next morning came. Nox popped his head out of the water.

"Shit! It's freezing!" His swearing completely blocked out the sound of a coughing Serge swimming to shore, his bandages soggy and falling apart, their two stalkers getting out of the water through the opposite shore.

"What is **wrong** with you two?!" The Pidgeot asked once they were all face to face, though he was responded by shouts from the other two pokémon, who then walked away in the opposite direction and went out of view, then the duo looked up at all of the pokémon in the balcony. Serge just flopped his wings against his body, as if asking "What?" before going into the hotel and getting to their room again.

"Fuck that shit… Glad it's over." Nox was swearing like a sailor, even as he came into the room, showing that he wasn't exactly in a great mood after all of that tomfoolery.

"Can someone please explain to me how things managed to escalate like this?" Eric's question was only answered with vague excuses and groans, and he decided to not press any further. "Let's hope nobody comes here to try and kick us out… for the love of Arceus you're going to kill yourselves one of these days."

"I'd prefer that over getting fucked in the a-"

" **Aaaaaalrighty then!** " Lucy quickly moved in to place a paw on Nox's muzzle to stop him from continuing that line of conversation. "Let's just get you two dry so we can go down, have dinner, and just go to sleep, because I don't know about you guys, but I'm feeling pretty tired!"

"And we must recover our energies for tomorrow: we did say we'd go exploring the nearby city tomorrow, didn't we?" Zed reminded all of them… and also informed both Eric and Elly, who looked at the Zorua, concerned.

"You did?" His best friend rose an eyebrow, and the dark type just looked at him, realizing he had actually forgotten to bring it up in front of Eric and Elly. The Riolu shook his head, dismissing those worries. "I'm fine with it, really, that's not the problem."

"I think we're both worried about who the leader of this "expedition" will be… and if you're absolutely sure you want to go all alone, and not with someone from the Kaiser family." Elly added, having read her mate's thoughts down to the last syllable. Jake was the one to speak up.

"I shall. With me at the front, getting lost will be impossible. We will be back by five in the afternoon, and should we miss a train or something of the sort, we will contact you through our crystals." Jake's descriptions of how it would all happen, or rather, how he pictured it all, were reassuring… but the fact that Jake was the one leading them wasn't.

"Alright, let's hope that this time they listen to what you tell them… unlike last time." The Riolu reminded everyone of that one fiasco back home, and they all either groaned, cringed or downright groaned in annoyance.

"Yeah… we'll try to listen to no fun Ice over here." Nox's nickname for the Sneasel once again reared it's head, and the pokémon in question was none too pleased.

"Perhaps I should call you "Hothead" from this moment onward, given the fact you cannot stop for two minutes and think that maybe trying to seduce that Ninetails is a bad idea." Everyone chuckled, and the Houndour could only complain for a short while before he was sent into the bathroom with Serge to dry themselves and, to quote Lucy "Go get some grub."

Dinner went by without any complications. The cafeteria was incredibly large, and thankfully tables for up to twenty guests were prepared, so they all just sat down around one of them, and then scattered throughout the entire restaurant to fetch themselves as much food as they fancied. Of course, that meant that basically everyone came back with a ludicrous amount of food of their choosing: Elly came back with various foods, but there was a whole separate plate with about a million different types of chocolate related treats on it, making Eric pale.

"You're going to have to burn all of that tomorrow morning…" He commented, and she just rolled her eyes and nuzzled him.

"Then we'll worry about that tomorrow… And besides, you're the one that should have to deal with it… If I remember correctly someone enjoyed grabbing my rear during our 'private time'?" Elly of course went straight for the kill, and Eric just didn't have anything to answer to that. Thankfully, she had said it in a low enough voice so that no one else could hear them, but still, it was decided that the next morning they'd go for a walk.

Lucy had fetched herself an absurd amount of pasta related dishes, while Zed had a little bit of everything on his plate, though he clearly wasn't going to eat it all. Nox had picked up a lot of pizza, just like Serge, and finally Jake and Eric had actually picked out proper size dishes for themselves with a variety of healthy foods, such as broccoli with grated cheese or berry and spinach lasagna, watching what and how much they ate. However, the one dish that was dominating in all of their plates were roasted veggies and berry skewers, something they all agreed was delicious.

The Kaiser also got themselves good portions of food, just not as big as theirs, thought this time, not even Luna commented anything on how much the others picked up. Their plates went from just a mixed salad to fish and meat with chips, Luna, Shade and Luca opting for fish alone, Dark, Radius and Dust taking the meat, Emily went for just the salad, which was big enough for a few, Dani and Clara shared a plate of octopus skewer, also taking some salad themselves as well with the same skewer before eating it all. Ichiro was the one to get the mix of meat, fish and chips.

Luca then all of a sudden leaned to the empty sit by her side and looked around from that point, as if she was looking for someone, understandable since Hadrim had still not joined them. When she sat properly again, however, his voice was heard. "Sorry for being late." The Espeon said, just popping there, no flash nor bright light, for once. The only thing he was wearing was a light brown scarf around his neck that he threw over his back.

"Hey! I thought you had lost it!" Luca said upon seeing that cloth.

"This? How could I? I just save it for special nights." He smiled at his mate, who just laughed lightly and pointed at his plate. She had taken him some berries and a piece of salmon, as well as a sliced apple. He thanked her and nuzzled her gently before starting to eat as everyone was already on it.

The Kaiser didn't last too much with their food as they picked more moderated dishes. As soon as they were finishing their food they stood and took their plates towards trail where they let them, then went to pick up some dessert and went back to the table. Dark got some cereal and milk, Dust was ok with a little bowl of strawberries, that he shared with Emily, Natalie was good with an orange, Ichiro picked up a cup of vanilla ice-cream with chocolate syrup, Radius picked up a nicely sized bag of yellow gummies. For some reason he had grown to love them over the grey ones since he'd evolved. Luna decided to get herself one more treat as well. While she was picking up, someone approached her. "Hey there." It was a male.

"Don't bother, boy. I'm not interested." She said immediately, not even looking, just keeping her eyes on what she wanted to finish her dinner.

"If you looking for spicy things, you should try-"

"Listen. I can choose myself, ok? I don't need anyone telling me, and even less a male, so I'd appreciate if you'd just go away." She looked at him, he was another vulpix, older so he was bigger than her, yet his fur was pure white with light blue paws.

"Woah. A babe with her ideas clear. That's hot." It wasn't the comment he made, just the nickname of "babe", set her off and she gave him such a hard smack that he fell off the counter.

"Now get lost!" She barked at him, losing her appetite she decided to go back to the table without anything.

The ice type stood up and looked at her with a smirk while she got back and jumped onto her sit, and for the moment decided to let her be, but he made sure to catch her scent and memorized it.

"Didn't get anything?" Emily asked.

"Nah. Got an idiot trying to hit on me and lost the appetite." Luna answered, making some of them chuckle and giggle.

"No, it's just that… with how violent you get when someone tries to hit on you, it's like you don't like guys in the first place." Lucy obviously didn't mean anything like that, and wasn't judging her.

"So? What's with it?" The fire type shot her a quizzical look.

"Uumm… what's with what?"

"That I might be onto females instead of males. Even then, I just hate those males that think that those cheap love comedy lines will work on real females… Ok maybe on some but at least not on me."

"I.. wait, no, I didn't mean it like that, I was just kidding, wasn't judging you. If anything it's better, because you can't have eggs that way." She crossed her arms and looked away, showing that she really didn't want to continue that conversation.

"I didn't thought that you were judging, sis. I was trying to turn the joke around." After that she left the topic as well, surprised not a comment came from a certain other fire type on that table. ' _Well having into account to what he pays attention to… Better that way._ ' She thought. Nox actually didn't comment on it because he was too busy eating pizza, but he also didn't want to start anything with the Vulpix, taking into account how it normally ended with her.

"So. What are you guys going to do?" Dani asked all of a sudden after almost all of them were fully done with their dinner.

"We're gonna go upstairs and go to sleep. We're probably going to be waking up early tomorrow to make the most of the day." Everyone agreed with the Pidgeot's excuse.

"I'll go back to the room, maybe play some games until I fall asleep." Ichiro said, the rest of the Kaiser nodding, with two exceptions.

"Luca and I will go out for a bit. I'll teleport us back so don't bother with the Keycard." Hadrim said.

"Actually, Eric and I were about to go do the same!" Elly pointed out. "Why don't we all go together?"

"Oh that sounds... great." Eric neither looked or sounded stoked about the whole ordeal now, though he had been up to that moment. The rest of Team Star

"Either way. Have one of the key-cards. In case some of you four needs it." Clara said, offering them said card, taking it out of her purse. Hadrim picked it up with his psychic and stocked it in between the folds of his scarf.

"What about you two?" Luca asked.

"We are going to enjoy some dancing tonight." The woman smiled.

The plan sounded good to Luca, but she'll leave it for another time, wanting to spend a calm night with Had. Elly was pretty excited for this sudden turn of events, but Eric wasn't too pleased, and Hadrim probably wasn't either. Of all times, it had to be now when their mates wanted to go out together?

Still, neither of them could say no to them, so after dinner they all got up and went their separate ways, with the aforementioned four going down to the bar together. Eric was looking at Hadrim every so often. ' _This is going to be great… He probably still resents me, if the past few days have been anything to go by… Oh well, might as well try and make the most of tonight.'_

Hadrim would've loved to spend the night alone with his mate. Go to take a drink somewhere, then maybe have a stroll around… ' _Well. It's not like we can't do those things together._ ' He thought calmly and then smiled. ' _We should put this stress behind us, and make the most of tonight._ ' He decided that he'll try that and offered a smile. "Wanna go somewhere to have a drink? My treat." The Espeon offered. He and Luca could have some… quality time the next day.

"Oh, uh… Sure, though we should pay for our drinks too. We don't want to appear as if we're living off of you or something." Eric politely responded, or maybe a bit too politely, feeling as if it was a practiced response.

"Then I wouldn't be treating you. You can pay next round if you want." The Espeon said with a chuckle, being more casual and relaxed. "I was also thinking we could go out of the complex and have a stroll nearby. Maybe there's something to see, even at this hour."

"Unless you want to go to the cinema… I think the only tourism we could do would be go have a stroll to the beach avenue and take a night salty bath, that is if we don't want to strike every bar we come across." Luca giggled a bit.

"I'm not really in the mood for a walk on the beach… sand and all. I'd say we "hit the town", as Serge likes saying, and just spend a calm night talking and laughing." The Eevee looked at the female jackal. "Though I have to say I like Luca's suggestion a lot, but the city is a bit far away…"

"Maybe they could be doing something in the hotel, like a show or something? I remember reading about a "show room" with a projector and all, so maybe there's something going on there?" The Riolu had jumped onto the cinema idea the moment it had been proposed. It'd minimize the chances of things getting awkward with Hadrim if they were all entertained by the movie itself.

"Sounds good to me." The Psychic type said and started to head towards one of the exits of the pools area, since the bar was near the pools. "So any suggestions on what to do next?" He asked, thinking himself at the same time he read the signs to know in which direction was the show room.

"We could hang out at the pools. We might not be allowed into the pools at night but that doesn't mean we can't sit down and chat." the Lucario offered, looking at the empty area as she stood by her mate. "A bit of stargazing since there is so little illumination at this area that you can actually see the stars."

"Sounds good! Now let this night start!" Elly raises her paw, sort of excited, and they all leave for this show room. True enough, they were showing a film, which was a black comedy with a lot of gore and a loud mouthed protagonist in a latex suit. Eric and Elly did laugh a few times, but found the gore excessive at times, albeit hilarious.

"Nox would definitely love this film, he needs to see it." The Riolu whispered to his mate as they hit the halfway point of the movie, and she looked at him and nodded. His gaze then floated to her side, where Hadrim and Luca were sitting.

Hadrim was sitting calmly, watching the movie, a smirk plastered on his muzzle from time to time to some jokes and so. Luca seemed to not be interested on it, yet she wasn't falling asleep, and actually some jokes made her chuckle. " _Not my type of movie, honestly. Even then, some jokes are good._ " She send to her mate.

" _Not the kind I was hoping for for a night like this, but is not like we can chose it. Aside from the excess of… well you know. Doesn't seem that bad._ " He said back.

" _Yeah right. Says the one who's missing battling for sport._ " She teased poking his side gently with one of her spikes to tickle him. He chuckled a bit and looked at her, holding her paw with his tail to keep it down and away from his side.

" _Don't you start, pretty._ " He said, looking at her, some kind of shine invading his eyes, and after her giggles, they went back to watch it. By the end of the film they were all somewhat satisfied.

"Well that was definitely… something. Not what I was expecting for an adult night… like, at all." The normal type had to point that out, to which everyone agreed. "It was fun though, that's what matters. Anyways, how about we go to the pool and look at those stars?"

"Fine by me." Luca answered calmly and they all headed to the pools area, taking two hammocks and placing them. The Lucario lying on her back and and when Hadrim did so by her side, she giggled, picking him up and put them chest to back, holding him so he could look up as well, her tail and his entwined together and as she hug him for a moment before looking up. Eric and Elly laid side by side, like they always did, and stargazed for an hour, talking with the Kaisers about something they hadn't been able to talk about before: the hardships of family.

"We actually considered it once before… but we both felt it just wasn't the time. There's a lot to be done, things still aren't safe enough back where we come from, and there's a lot of good we can still do. If we did follow with… starting a real family, we'd be bound, and we'd have to stay by them." Elly explained the rather heartbreaking conclusion she and Eric had reached after he came back from his almost full year disappearance, both Kaiser Pokémon listened calmly, seeing why they decided that. It took a lot of time to take care of the eggs and then the cubs. At least one of them would have to stop working for a time, if not both of them.

"So we decided to consider Team Star as our own strange "family" of friends… and since we spend almost every waking moment together, and we even share a house… it's not too much of a stretch really." Eric held the Eevee's paw as he said this, smiling, and the Eevee nuzzled him, showing that they did not exactly regret their decision, yet at the same time, wished things could be different, for one reason or another.

"True enough." Hadrim said. "You've probably heard how sometimes Shade calls Natalie 'sis', I guess. Given enough time together you could end seeing friends as family. With your situation, is not that crazy to say it. In fact, sometimes you truly act as family, like Nox and Jake fighting over the temperature besides the chimney."

"Never seen a fire type defending a fireplace so fiercely." Luca chuckled. "And true having children is a tough work, more so the first years. We used to spend the whole day going around the island, exploring and so. But then one day those adventures were exchanged for another that was limited to the limits of the household. And no matter how much you see them grow up or what kind of foes you see them defeat. They could even be Worldwide Heroes or Champions. For you they'll always be your fragile little babies." The Lucario had a smile on her muzzle as she talked that gave her happiness away.

Eric and Elly listened to their words silently, and even though they couldn't even start to imagine what they felt, they nodded and agreed, albeit the Eevee's eyes were filled with doubt, which her mate noticed almost immediately, yet didn't comment on it. The rest of the night consisted of them drinking a bit at the bar before they closed down and decided to go to sleep, getting some rest for the next day of their vacation.

* * *

The next morning, most, if not everyone, was sleeping soundly, asides from Elly, who suddenly woke up, gasping for air, her movement startling and awakening Eric, whose arms were wrapped around her. "Hey hey hey, are you alright?" His concern for her condition was palpable, and she appreciated it, visibly relaxing when she felt his arms around her.

"Yeah… I just… had a bad dream." She stared off into infinity. "It's… been a long time… since I had one, that is." The tone of her voice was shaky, and she seemed anxious, reminded the Riolu of his himself back when they had first gotten to that world.

Suddenly, he got an idea. "Tell you what: How about we go for a walk on the beach, like we said we would?" The Eevee looks out the window. "Yeah… I know it's early, but I feel like we could make the most of it now, all things considered."

She couldn't really fight against that logic, and decided to follow what he said. After washing themselves in the bath and getting ready, Eric grabbed his bag, some money and their crystals and they left the room after hanging a note saying where they were going, in case anyone was worried for them. They knew that the rest of their team mates would get up shortly after for their "city tour", so that was a way to prevent them from worrying.

They didn't take the bus or the train to get to the beach, and instead opted to just walk there. The hotel was located in a sparsely populated area, with luxurious looking houses, bungalows and even manors, which gave off an ominous air. "Human houses are massive for the size of their families… I wonder why they need too much space."

The Eevee thought about it as her mate voiced his thoughts. "It probably has something to do with their own character… they do think they're at the top of the world, or at least some of them do… But I don't think they're that different from the ones that we have back in our world… And if I remember correctly we're going to have a house that's just as big as that one." She pointed at a bungalow. "Minus the pool and with a second floor…" She added after realizing these differences, a smile on her face.

"Someone sure is excited…"

"I need more space for my books! And besides, I'm really not looking to cleaning it all during spring… ugh, I hate dust, it's so annoying."

"You mean **he** is annoying." The joke took a few seconds to register in her head, but she laughed afterwards.

"Oh well, not necessarily annoying… just a bit childish is all."

"And a pervert."

Another laugh. "Yeah, and that. But he's been a lot more calm ever since he and Emily got together." They stayed silent for a few minutes. "You know, I think we're quite lucky that we found the Kaisers, of all people." She looked at him as she said this, and he thought about it for a bit, and then agreed with her with a nod. "I mean, if you think about it, with all the stories we hear daily, we were quite lucky."

"That, and also how… involved they seem to be. With this world I mean." Eric crossed his arms as he stopped on the sidewalk, in front of one of the many houses, and looked at the semi-cloudy early morning sky. "The whole affair with Dailos, the legendaries, Dark and Natalie once being human… like, it's a lot of coincidences, and we seemed to drop into the middle of that too." He looked at the Eevee, who was in front of him as she had kept walking even as he stopped, standing out against the sea in the background. "Don't you think it's a bit much?"

"Hmmm… Well, now that you mention it… yeah, that's a lot of coincidences. Then again, this isn't a new conversation topic for me: I've already discussed it with Jake before, and even commented it with Nat or Hadrim. Everyone drew their conclusions, but the general consensus is that it may have been just pure, dumb luck." She shrugged. "Honestly, does it really matter? Given who we are we probably would've gotten wrapped up in all this anyway."

"I'll give you that… it's like we're a magnet for bad luck, everyone on the team, that is…" He remembered what happened the day prior. "Some more than others." Elly knew exactly what he meant and giggled, and after that they resumed their walk to the beach. The area they had to walk through was bare, with the exception of a few lamp posts, which looked new, the same widewalks and roads they had been walking on, and some stretches of virgin land, with large signs which said "ON SALE".

"This area must be new…" As she said this they stepped into the asphalt, crossing the last road that would get them to the beach, and they could feel it under their paws. "Yeah, definitely… it's way smoother." They then went back to the sidewalk, and then shortly after they arrived at the beach, were the smooth and silky touch of the sand pressed against their feet, making them sigh in relief.

"Thank god… I'm starting to hate these streets. Sure, they aren't paved with cobblestone, like back home, so the footing is better… but I swear, it feels like you're walking on solid stone! Wouldn't it kill them to like… build the sidewalks with grass or something, so it isn't as painful?" Eric's complaints only made Elly smile.

"Well, what does it matter now… we're on the beach, so everything should be quite familiar now for us." They looked at eachother and smiled, and began walking toward the edge of the water, letting the sea lick away at their feet as they stood together and sat, looking off into the horizon. Because of the orientation, the beach was looking in the opposite direction of the rising sun, so the sky above them wasn't their usual bright yellow and red, but rather dark and light blue, with white clouds flying above them, a cluster retreating from the left.

They sat still there for what felt like an hour, just listening to the sound of the waves, enjoying the feeling of the wet sand against their fur and letting time pass, enjoying the company of the other. Eventually, however, Elly's mind raced back to the dream she had had that night, which was related to the conversation they held with the Kaiser parents the night prior.

"You know… yesterday got me thinking… a lot." She suddenly spoke up, in order to call her mate's attention. "We talked about things that we hadn't considered for a long time… you know, having cubs…" Eric's full attention was turned to her. He knew how much these family affairs mattered to her. "I still don't regret the decision we took, and eventually when we feel like it, we can always quit and start a real family, but… that all got me thinking… about what being a family meant and all… and what Hadrim said too…"

He was listening to her speech, already getting a faint idea of where this was all headed. "I couldn't help but think… about them, you know?"

The moment she said this Eric sighed and looked up. "Elly, please not this again…"

"But this again, Eric! I can't just pretend like they never existed!" She looked at the sand. "For the better **and** the worst, I have to accept that they were there, and what happened to them… and while I'm ok with my mother… him… I just don't feel at ease."

"Why? What he did was wrong: he destroyed your life, tried to destroy mine, and ruined countless others. Blake got what he deserved." His words were not only there to try and convince her… but also to convince himself. There was a long silence. "Who am I kidding: I still feel horrible… he was a monster in every conceivable way, yes, and at the time we all knew it was the only way to end it all… And yet…" His final words echoed inside of their minds.

' _Well... that's too bad, isn't it?'_

"If all he knew was hatred… what they taught him since he was born… was he really to blame for everything? Is someone born with malice inside of them, or… is it acquired throughout their lives?" Elly grabbed the sides of her head as she asked herself these questions. "I just don't know Eric… what if… what if it's in my blood?" He looked at her, alarmed. "I didn't necessarily turn out like him, but… what if our children did? What if one of them became a new Blake? I could… I couldn't bear to live with that weight on my shoulders."

Eric didn'tknow what to answer, since he was shocked beyond belief. He shook her, as if trying to snap her out of that trance, but also try to get his own bearings again. "Ok, please, Elly, calm down: it doesn't have to be that way, alright? That would never happen, because they'd have us, alright? We'd be there for them, and…"

"But what if that didn't matter? What if they were born evil?! What then?!"

He looked at her, gravely. "No one is born evil, Elly." He grabbed her, serious. "Nobody. That's a lie that those Judges of whatever have begun putting into people's heads this past year, but that is a lie. You're not evil, but you're his daughter: that is all the proof I need." She was on the verge of tears now, but she kept nodding with his statements, trying to convince herself.

"I… I… know… But I'm just scared… even beyond that, I just… I'm scared that I wouldn't be a good mother for them… I never had one to begin with, I don't know what I should and shouldn't do, how to take care of them…"

"Then we'd find out together. Look at me." She did so. "If you look at me, you'll find a young Riolu with no idea of how to take care of a kid either, and if you looked at Luca and Hadrim when they had Dust, they were probably the same way: no one knows, you just have to learn and treat them with all the love and care you can… and even then, I don't know if that would apply… but what I do know Elly, is that no matter what, you'd be the best mother one could ask for in this entire world." His words reached her heart, and he pulled her in for a hug. "And don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise."

She cried and sobbed into his chest. "Yes… you're… you're right. I believe you Eric…" She looked up at him, noticing that he was also getting emotional. "And you'd… be… a great father too." He smiled as she said this and hugged her, making sure she didn't go anywhere as they calmed down from the sudden breakdown of emotions. The conversation was far from over, and they knew that someday in the future, the problem would arise again, but… for the moment, all they could do was hug and think on anything else but that… and live their lives with all the optimism they could.

The future could be either bright or dim, but as long as they held out together, they knew they would be alright.

* * *

 **Ray: No… I won't… That last one is too good. My gosh… Sorry bro but you got me there… that or it could be that i read the entire thing while listening "I don't want to say goodbye" playing within my head…**

 **Eric: I have actually grown to not like to use music on such emotional moments… I feel they just break them a bit, I don't know.**

 **Ray: Well guys… little chapter full of fun and emotions! Some hearty conversation and even one of us have to think on what he's doing with his characters… Sooo… yeah! We hope you enjoyed the chapter and had some laughs! Stay tuned for next one.**

 **Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**


	16. Chapter 15 - In the City

**Rayrudan: Ok, bro, please let me clarify like… two things or more before we start with anything: The luggage was all tied on top of the car, so all the availlable space was being used by the humans and the pokémon. About Pokeballs, the Kaiser don't have much, as to avoid their guests accidentally getting trapped in one… yet they had something they call an emergency plan for extreme cases… Won't say more on this, you wait and stop pulling my tongue!**

 **Eric: Hey, it's alright, I caught that part. We just thought it'd be funny, so calm down people.**

 **Ray: Hjof: glad you liked the PMD reference. Also thanks for that comment on Luna, maybe she's just growing fond of certain other fire type? Nah! … or is it? hm…**

 **Eric: Hmmm indeed… also, I can definitely relate to the exam thing (as you all will see down in the feet A/N), but hey, it is definitely good to see you back! Also, c'mon man, I'm not that obvious. That's what a normal self-respectful fanfiction writer would do and get a kid in there somewhere! But me? Nah man, naaaaaaah. I have other ways to make you all suffer.**

 **Ray: ok, Hinebra's next! For now I will say that Pokémon are integrated in what I'm gonna call "human society" in this world. They can own a business, a house, they can drive… they can even adopt, like it was seen during the swap part: two Zoroark and a Zorua with a little human girl. Making it simple it could make it that the Pokémon in my world divide in three groups: Wilds, those are the Pokémon that live in the wild and away from human society and keep their more animalistic ways, then there are the Trained, the usual Pokémon trained for battles, and then the Urbanite Pokémon, which are those I explained above, and for the sake of not making this more complicated, I'll refrain from saying more.**

 **Eric: The Nox and Jynx thing is more so of a gag than anything. Personally I do find the design of Jynx to be absolutely bizarre and ugly as sin, but oh well. At the same time, Garchomp's isn't THAT bad. It's a face you could kiss after a few rounds at the bar.**

 **Ray: -shudders- The heat rusting the metal… well it might happen but hey why do you sunbath if your body is covered by fur?**

 **Ray: I thought Sneasel was a feline not a canine… And I was hungry when we did the dinner scene, ok? -pouts-(?)**

 **Eric: Sneasel I think has more feline characteristics, but I thought that this discussion was settled within the chapter: my guys come from a world where the sense of smell isn't used for those types of things, so overtime they never even developed those aptitudes, some never develop them because of evolution and genetics (kinda like some people have wisdom teeth and others don't) or they just don't use it because it's disrespectful. And also, take into account that their air pollution in the air is REALLY getting to them.**

 **Ray: Hi again Average Pichu, glad to read you. Yeah Pokeballs can handle the luggage, but as I said, the Kaiser don't have that many of them, besides why are they still called Pokeballs? Uhm… well I like to go with this: Pocket Monster: Pokémon, then Pocket Ball… it should be clear, now.**

 **Eric: Basically they are still used for pokémon (I don't know what made you think they weren't) but the Kaisers refuse to use them on their pokémon.**

 **Ray: Good old Western, let's see… Heh… You weren't the only one bursting your lungs with laughter with those attempts at flirting I assure you xDDD And Hadrim is… well trying to not let what happened be more than… hmm how to put it? He's not trying to make it seem less important, because hell! what happened is important, he's just trying to… don't let it get in the way after so long… yeah that's the best way I can put it.**

 **Eric: Well, you better get ready, because there's more where that came from. And yes, I don't think the actual responsibility of having children and the fear that comes with it is usually explored in stories like these, so I intend to delve on that (and fail, horribly)**

 **Now, without any further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 15

In the City

The house was calm, almost as silent as a tomb. A pitch black Flareon with white tail and neck fur was laying on the couch on the living room. the TV was on but the volume was turned down. The Flareon rose his face from his paws and looked around. He looked at the family photos on the wall and the coffee table, which displayed a man with white hair and dark skin, red haired woman, paler than the man, a boy that got the skin tone of his father and the hair colour of his mother and a little deep blue furred Eevee. The three humans with big smiles and looking happy, while the Eevee had that curious look on his face. The Flareon sighed and closed his eyes after staring at the boy for a little while. "Again thinking about the boy, Yol?" A voice asked and he looked at the newcomer, an average, yet scarred Lucario sat by his side and looked at him.

"Yeah…" The Flareon answered. "I miss him, Shul." he said.

"I can tell." There was a moment of silence. "How much time has it been?" The fighting type asked.

"Five years now." Was the answer. "Since that bomb at the mall." His mood didn't improve with that. Even more, he was about to shed tears when his friend scratched behind his ears, trying to comfort him. "This quest for revenge is only killing Zax, and us in the process. We need to stop this."

"I know. And as well as I do, you know that it's impossible to take the idea out of his head."

Yol just sighed and lowered his head and ears. Memories of the incident rushed back into his mind. He remembered them just going around, getting ready for a journey, then all of a sudden there was an explosion and, people started screaming and rushing away. The three humans got separated and he followed the boy, as always. Everything was a chaos and all of a sudden, he felt someone pushing him away, when he looked what he saw was Jack, the human boy of the family, trapped under a pile of debris, his hands extended to him. The boy had pushed him away and now was laying there, eyes closed and immobile. Before he could even try to wake him up, something fell on him and Yol was out of it. Next time he woke up he was being hug by a crying Zax, so tightly it almost didn't let him breath, they were in a Pokemon Center room and there was no sign of Jack around. When the older human told him what happened, the Flareon just broke down as well.

In the end they managed to go on, yet it has never been the same. For starters, Zax was much more cold towards others, that and also other things. When he discovered that an organization by the name of Team Arena was behind the explosion, he got obsessed with it. The human wanted revenge, and had called some of the Pokémon from his old team back. None of them thought it was a good idea, since this type of people tends to be very dangerous, but he was dead serious on it. So they agreed to put a stop to them.

However, what none of them expected, was the methods he'll use to get information and even to try and make them come out.

The human discovered a lab under a children's park. He planted the bomb on the chimney on the center of said park that helped clean the air from inside. His objective was to just discover the lab, he didn't care how strong the explosion would be. When the news popped up with the number of deaths and hospitalized children and Pokémon, all of his team openly blamed him. Yet he only took another approach because there was no mention at all about the lab under the park. From then on he'd been looking for and interrogating people from the organization, afterwards getting rid of them, there was one fat man, that he held hostage in the man's own house, torturing him with electricity, and when he got answers, he just stabbed his chest with a knife that had a wire hooked to it before decapitating him, then there was man at the Pokeball fabric, the which he let fall into the smelter, and then the slavist drowned in his own pool.

During the last job, Shul went with him. They found good information, and even got the name of one of the high ranks from Team Arena, a former colonel in the army that was said to have died in some kind of shipwreck. The Lucario wasn't too happy when he saw how that ended. He had the guy held down, using his hands to keep him down. They were in a history museum and Shul held the human on the guillotine, while Zax interrogated him for the info, threatening with chopping his head off. When they had it, the Lucario was about to let go, when Zax pulled on the rope and the blade fell. Even after a long time, it still cut off the human's head, as the other simply started walking away, leaving the corpse there. Shul was stunned at first, then he stood and went with Zax. The Lucario hadn't said anything since then but he really wasn't going to stand this. This wasn't his trainer, at all. This was just some monster they had to stop.

As he remembered this, the Lucario stood up and walked towards the human's room, ignoring Yol when the Flareon asked him, thus calling the attention of basically everyone in the house. When he came in, the human looked at him, red eyes from both locking onto one another.

"What's happened to you?" The Lucario asked, the human simply sighed and turned back to his investigation.

"People ch-" The white haired man started to say but the Pokémon cut him off, yanking the human to face him.

"Don't give me that bullshit, Zax! I get you want revenge, ok, but what you're doing is just plain out murdering people!"

"I do what I have to to get rid of those bastards." The human was getting heated as well.

"My balls! You're just bloodthirsty!"

The argument attracted the attention not only from Yol Flareon, but also from the Absol, the Vaporeon and the Gallade as well. The four watching the scene unfold and hearing them argue about what Zax has done during this time. The Lucario shoved up the human's face all of those that he had killed, clearly angry.

Zax exploded after a bit and pushed the Lucario away to then get to him and get literally face to face. "You know nothing, Shul. You've never lost your son and mate because of some bastards that wanted to cause some disappearances!" The human spat as the other growled, fangs bared. The four onlookers actually thought they were going to get into a fight so they kept watching, mostly to stop them if they reached that far. Shul pushed back against his trainer, growling back at the human.

"I left my family back for a bastard like you. I came when you called. Everyone has set aside their lives to be with you and help you out of this, and the only thing you do is just fall deeper into the pit you call purpose! You even have us with you when you go for the information you need. But killing?" The Lucario kept on his growling, but even then he was clearly refraining his impulses. "You are not my trainer. My trainer was my friend, not a serial killer!" With this the Lucario used his strength to push the huaman away, making him trip and fall down to the floor. without more words, Shul stepped out of the room, and out of the house all together. The Vaporeon quickly ran after him, telling him to wait, and both disappeared from the house.

"Shul's right, Zax." Gallade said. "You are not the one we met and grew to like. You've turned to be just like those you try to stop." The psychic said and went to his own business.

"Ares…" The Absol said and looked at Zax, then at Yol, and then went behind the Psychic type.

Yol didn't say anything, just stood there. Zax stood pathetically sitting on the floor of his own room. The Flareon went inside and sat in front of him. The human rose his head and looked at him. "Where is that father that took me in when my friend died?" He asked the human. His words hurt the most to the human, the Flareon knew, he had went through that too and tears filled his eyes as he lowered his head again. Instead of leaving as Zax expected, the fire type went to him and laid down by his side, putting his head on the human's lap. Actual sobbing coming from the human, even if he tried to keep silent.

* * *

Silence was the king of the house on that day. Supreme, undisputed, unmovable: silence was all. Only the sound of a lock snapping open perturbed it, the main entrance slowly creaking open, a faint mantle of dust, gathered from just two days' absence, rose up, imperceptible to the naked eye as the small particles danced around in a maddening orchestra of movement before settling down. Silence recovered its throne… before the sound of a lone foot stepping on wood once again knocked it down from its altar, and then another, and another.

The silence was asphyxiating, and it felt as if the place was breathing on The Watcher's back. This was enemy territory, he kept telling himself, and sooner or later, they would jump out of that corner and attack… But he turned the corner and saw nothing but empty armchairs, couches, a turned off TV and closed windows covered with blinds. The entire place was deserted, no matter which way you looked at it. It grew anxious once more, and he knew it too. They had to be quick, lest he would lose his cool. It looked around, left and right, high and low, upstairs and downstairs, checked the basement and below it, careful to not disturb much, keeping everything near or exactly where he had found it. Nothing. He returned to the main entrance, ready to leave. This could've been the wrong house, it kept telling him, they'd just have to find another. And just when they were about to leave, it's eyes glanced over something. Something which made it's heart stop, and it's blood chill. It tried to keep going, but his hand grabbed the portrait, then he twisted it's neck to look in that direction. And there they were: none of Team Star was present, but he recognized the Riolu, the Jolteon and of course the Lucario next to it, and right next to that one was the same happy family, but with two added members: a Zoroark and another Eevee. It grabbed the second photo, looking at it almost nostalgically…

"Gone. They left. They knew we were here… and they left…" It didn't respond, silently accepting what was inevitably coming. He silently dropped the frame on the counter, leaving it facing up, and then walked out the door, closing it. They shouldn't leave any traces, after all. Nobody had to know they'd been there.

Then a scream, as it was dragged into the forest. Cries of pain and moans of regret, sorrow and pleads of forgiveness.

Then silence was king.

* * *

Natalie was bored out of her mind. That morning was too calm for her. She wanted to do something. Radius, Dark, Dust and Hadrim had gone out of the suit to check the place. Emily and Luna didn't want to go to the pool that early, the first wanting to see the cartoons on TV, the second just feeling lazy. And Luca was busy in her room with a book, and knitting something up at the same time and the youngest Eevee didn't want to bother her. Ichiro was sleeping as well and Clara and Dani had gone out again, even when they came back after midnight that night.

She was really bored, and this boredom had her restless and pacing around the whole suit, looking for something to do. Until she decided to kill time, carrying a chess board to the balcony and putting it on top of the table there. The Eevee jumped on the table and set the pieces on the board randomly, making up some random situation on the board, leaving some pieces out of the board. Once the game was set up she just stood looking the board, thinking on a way to get out of the situation. Blacks were losing and Whites had two queens that threatened the black king… Natalie tried to get the blacks to win in this situation, at least it had her mind occupied and she wasn't pacing to and fro like the bored kit she was that morning.

* * *

"Have you tried already talking with Eric?" Dust asked.

Dark didn't answer at first, the smile that was on his face from previous finny comments gone now.

"No…" The Zoroark said.

They were at the hotel's battling grounds, enjoying some battles themselves, Pokémon and humans challenging each other. It was an open field with four battling fields. A few Pokémon, like Alakazam, Slowking, even a Metagross were around, looking at the fields, those three pokémon worked for the hotel, and their work was to avoid the moves going from one field to another or to the crowd on the stands.

There were some battles going on, as it seemed the hotel had been on some kind of tournament for the last few days, and each of the fields held a battle, it was fun seeing a single Mienshao wipe out a full team of six from a trainer and then have the human shaking hands with the Pokémon. The stands had space for a lot of people and pokémon, yet there was a lot of free space so they were comfortable.

"Come on! When do you plan on at least trying to go to him and talk about it? One can cut the tension between you two with a claw!" The golden Riolu said to the dark type, who just groaned.

"Is not that easy, you know!" Dark said. "Is not like I can just go to him, say that I'm sorry for being a brat that night and then everything's solved! I rather keep with the cold shoulder than getting into an argument again." He finished, the other three looking at him in silence for a moment.

"Hmpf. You big chicken." Dust said, ignoring his father's scolding look. "Argument or not at least have the balls to to try and fix your situation." He said.

"Dust. Trying that could even make things worse." Radius intervened before the Zoroark said anything. "None of us thought it was a good idea what he did that night. Hell mom even tried to make him talk about it!"

"You know I'm here, right?" The dark fox said.

The Jolteon shut up for a moment after that.

"Even then! None of us holds onto that night." He said. "And yes I know what we went through, I was there as well." He shuddered remembering that fucker they confronted… and in part could understand why Eric was like that. Just remembering it and his attempts at helping made the golden jackal feel as if he had a lump in his throat that made it really hard to breath.

"Either way. The only way to confront a foe that makes you run away is to turn around and fight." Hadrim said, implying things he didn't say, and those words had a double sense for the Zoroark.

The matches where over after some more minutes, the which they spent commenting on the fights themselves, even Hadrim had to stop one of the attacks that headed their way that the Slowking failed to contain. The Espeon kept his cool as if that was nothing. It always made Dark wonder just how much Had had gone through to be able to go unfazed by those things, while the rest of the little group was ready to get the hell out of there.

Once the fields were cleared, the four got into one of them, leaving the other three free. "Well. Whae got a field so… wanna train a bit?" Dust asked, talking more to the Zoroark than anything.

"I shouldn't yet." The bipedal fox said.

"Come on. You had all of yesterday to recover."

"After a full day of being out." Radius pointed.

"Yet I think you could handle." Hadrim commented. "What you say we do free for all?" He proposed.

Dust had a smile on his muzzle and cracked his knuckles, suddenly hyped for this. "Fine by me!" He said.

"Dunno. I still don't have the hang of this. Should ask Lucy for a few tips." Radius said, making a note to ask the Shinx again another time.

"Come on. Let's see what you can do." Hadrim said, he was almost as enthusiastic as Dust about this.

In the end, the other two agreed to it. The enthusiasm being contagious to them. As said they set the rules. Free for all with no alliances and 'til they couldn't fight anymore. Each one got a corner of the field and got ready to fight. Dust and Dark were facing each other, while Radius and hadrim where the same way. The Jolteon being the most nervous out of the four of them, knowing not only how much did Dust and Dark train and with what intensity, but also knowing his father, being a pack's Pokémon, would surely have a lot of experience.

"Don't chicken out now, bro! Come on!" Dust called to him as he felt this.

"Show us what you can do, Rad!" Had followed.

"You'll do great, come on!" Dark finished.

Their words managed to put him at easy and the Jolteon got into a better battle stance, fur spiked and electricity crackling, showing his newfound thrill. ' _Ok! I'm ready!_ ' He thought and, even one random Pokémon, a male Umbreon, got hyped for the fight and got on a side of the field.

"You four ready?" He asked, the four in the field decided to follow along and nodded. "Let this battle begin!" The Umbreon cheered loudly, calling some others attention which was hooked by the four Pokemon jumping into action, Dark and Dust clashing in the middle of the field, Radius then running towards them, his body charged and surrounded with electricity as he ran at them, Hadrim stood in place for a moment, watching, while the two close combatants pushed each other away when they saw the Jolteon charging at them. What surprised most was the Zoroark wielding a purple bone rush, Dust was much the same, both of them adopting a different stand, while Hadrim looked, Radius trying to hit his father, who just gave a backflip and rammed his metallic tail onto the Jolteon's face, sending him backwards. Immediately after, Had ran at him and tackled him further back. ' _Shit!_ ' The Jolteon thought as he endured the two hits and stood, ready to go back, but he had to jump away of a shadow claw that came from Dark, to his right, and then had to blast Dust double kick away with a Shadow ball and counter Had's Iron tail with his own. ' _For a free for all this seems more like three on one!_ ' The Jolteon commented for himself, before charging his electricity up and freeing it all in a huge surge of electricity, the which the Espeon dodged by teleporting back, too close to comfort, but the Zoroark and Riolu got the shock of the attack. both of them managing to stay up on their feet after it.

"That was a hard hit." Dust praised a bit.

"Not enough! Come on! You can do better, Radius!" Hadrim said as he went back into the fight, once again running to his son and ramming into him with force, managing to take him down and get over him to pin the Jolteon down. But the electric Eeveelution kicked him off of him and stood back up, lunging at Dust seeing an opening as he was defending from Dark's blows. The Riolu parried the Zoroark and kicked his brother on the face before he could bite him. Dark however, took the momentum of said parry to land a hard hit acors Dust's face with all his strength, making a cut appear on his check, the Zoroark followed with an uppercut to raise the jackal and would have blasted him away if not for Hadrim landing a psybeam on him, pushing the Zoroark away with the strength behind the attack.

The attack hurt him less than what he thought and the Zoroark countered with a Dark pulse, the dark beam of rings pushing the psychic one back a bit until Had put more into it, smiling seeing that certainly, the Zoroark had grown a lot stronger. The beams exploded after a bit, Dust using the cloud of dust as cover to attack himself, sending Radius back and launching an aura sphere at Hadrim, who wasn't quick enough to dodge and got hit. Dark however, felt him coming and was ready. Opening his eyes in time to see the Riolu dawning a bone rush on him with all his strength, the Zoroark used a shadow claw to parry the blow once again and used the break to land a really hard kneel to the Riolu's head, making him dizzy for a moment and then hit him with the same shadow claw, leaving three more scratches on the Riolu's chest before he picked him up and threw him against Radius, who was coming back to the fight.

The Zoroark then blocked Had's Iron tail, holding the Espeon by it and swoon him over him to then smash him down on the floor with force, actually making the psychic type grunt in pain, before being sent flying away, the Espeon rolling and landing gracefully on his paws before going back into the field. Hadrim felt proud of Dark being able to endure his hit and even that he himself got such a hard blow, it showed him how much the Zoroark had improved, and this only spurred him to keep on.

Radius bite Dust's arm when the Riolu landed on him after being thrown by the Zoroark, digging his fangs into his brother's flesh and making him yell in pain, then getting kicked on the chest and the air blown out of his lungs, yet he kept the hold, at least until Dust punched his nose, making the Jolteon let out tears of pain and back away, shaking his head. After a moment, Rad sneezed hard, and Dust felt the pinching of a few needles hit him, Dark and Hadrim also felt them, the Jolteon's hardened fur digging into their skin. It wasn't a move that hurt that much, but there are uses for well placed needles, and Dust was feeling one of them. One of Rad's hairs dug into his elbow and had the muscle tense and lock in place. He tried to take the needle out but Dark didn't let him time, trying to burn the three of them with a flamethrower.

The three other fighters jumping away from the stream of flames. The Jolteon then charged against his brother, ramming into him and shocking him with his electricity, then dodged Had's Psybeam and disappeared in a hole. All three of them stood as still as they could, not wanting to give away their positions. Dust took the moment to take the needle out of his elbow, movement and sensibility coming back to it after a bit. Then he summoned a little aura bone and put some more aura into it, to then throw it at Dark, who crouched down to avoid it, his feet scraping the floor and signaling Rad of his position, the Jolteon not lasting much before bursting out from under him and ramming his head into the dark type's chin, while the bone turned in the air, heading straight for Hadrim's head. The Espeon blowed it up with a shadow ball of his own before fixing his eyes on his older son, and teleporting right in front of him, headbutting the Riolu and making him stumble, keeping up pressure with a psywave that pushed him back a bit and finishing with a bite to the Riolu's arm. "What's with you all biting me! I'm not that tasty!" He protested and started punching his father's head and kicking his paws how he could, Hadrim not letting go, even after a snort for a particular hard hit on the nose. Only when Dust threatened with an aura sphere did the Espeon back off, this time getting a hard hit from Dark.

The fight went on for an hour, all of them ended scratched and bruised. Dark and Dust had more endurance than Rad, who was already panting after just one hour, Hadrim kept his cool all the battle, never losing it. When he used his psychic it was a pain for the other three to break free, more so when he used it to attack the three of them at the same time, basically thrashing them around like ragdolls until they managed to land a hit on him. Hadrim even went as far as to try and bury them under rocks. Radius was the first one to go out, getting out of the field and slumping on the ground, panting, tired as hell.

Hadrim kept a good fight but he forfeit after ten more minutes, not tired, and not running but those two were starting to get his tricks, and if he wanted to end out being the last standing, he'll have to use his last trick, one he didn't like to use in places like that.

This left only Dark and Dust. "As usual, eh, bro?" Dust said, getting into a stance again.

"You bet." Dark said, doing the same. The two went at it even more now. Their attacks making dents on the floor and one almost breaking the Alakazam's protection that tried to stop it. At one moment, dust sent a particularly strong aura sphere at the Zoroark, who saw it coming and extended his arms to parry it, yet this time he saw the Riolu coming at him and in a reflex act, when the ball touched him he spun in place, summoning an aura bone. The aura that formed the sphere following his paw changed to a purplish green as Dark fed it his own aura to be able to grab it, the blow with the bone landed square on Dust's shoulder, a hard hit, but not as hard as the explosion of the aura sphere, which shent them both away from each other. Dust rolling on the floor and ending laying down, and Dark kneeling to keep himself up. Both of them were panting, yet ready to keep the battle up.

* * *

Meanwhile, not too far away from the hotel, Eric and Elly were just about done with their morning walk, and were already going back home. Everything had gone smoothly, asides from that heartfelt conversation on the beach, which neither of them commented the entire way back, mainly because they were scared of whatever could come out from it. Instead, they talked about more lighthearted things, such as what they thought about Zed and Lucy's relationship, and whether or not it was getting anywhere.

"I think Zed is pretty serious about the whole thing, like… The two of them have tied the knot, so it wouldn't be that far fetched to think that they'll end up going to the whole way like we did." The Riolu had talked with the Zorua time and time again about this topic, and he had a fairly good idea.

"I think Lucy is taking it seriously too, but… she has these certain points… Like, remember what she told me about her childhood back in her tribe?" He nodded, remembering the story she had retold him, even though Lucy had told her to not tell it to anyone, specially the Riolu. "Well, I just… I'm scared that could eventually make her take a choice we don't expect."

"What makes you think that? I mean, if I remember correctly, last time she appeared around there they accepted her pretty well."

"When was the last time she went to see her family of her own volition?" Elly's question was rather matter-of-factly, and was more of a rhetorical question, because Eric didn't know the answer to that question. She was right: it had been an awfully long time since Lucy said she wanted to visit her family… Hell, ever since they needed their help in that massive fight. "There you have it."

"Well… What could that have to do with anything?"

"What if they don't like Zed or something? Or what if she's hiding something from him?"

"Wouldn't you know that better than anyone? You're her best friend after all."

"And Zed's her boyfriend!" The jackal didn't know what to answer that: she'd caught him off-guard again.

"Alright, look… just calm down. I believe you're thinking way too much into this, so just relax, let's talk about something else, and we'll take care of those problems as they come, alright?" She scoffed, knowing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere after that, and the Riolu was getting tired of her voicing her worries like that, and she could understand why: she hadn't stopped ever since they'd gotten to that beach.

"Well… alright, how about we talk about something else? Like… what's on your head?" She changed the conversation topic, and Eric gave her a bemused look.

"Asides from breakfast? Not much…" She rolled her eyes.

"You do realize that I can go into your mind and find out the hard way, right?"

He looked up at the sky and shook his head in exasperation. "Jeez, you really want to know… fine, I was thinking about yesterday and how the hell I'm going to be able to walk up to Hadrim and apologize to him."

"Hadrim? About what?"

"Well, shouting at him back when we were dealing with the stress after the attack, plus all I did during those weeks… I just feel like I need to say something, I can't just wait until it fades away, it's just not right." She nodded in response. "And besides, I guess I just want to clear my mind before I even consider talking with Dark."

"You are still hold a grudge?" She gave him a worried look, which he didn't return.

"I just… He angers me in a way that no one else has been able to. I don't know how to explain it… Look, for now I'll apologize to Hadirm, that's at least some progress, and I'll see what I do with Dark." After this he fell silent, and she sighed, albeit it wasn't all bad: at least he was willing to openly apologize to Hadrim after all that had happened. They went back the same way they'd come, but this time around there were a few humans and pokémon walking around the street, mostly humans with belts and pokeballs. They were extremely weary as they walked around, as some of those humans seemed to be really interested in them, and just as they were about to reach the hotel one grabbed a black and yellow pokeball and threw it at them. Eric quickly swung around with extreme ferocity and summoned a light staff, hitting the ball and breaking it into bits and pieces, glaring daggers at the trainer.

He was about to pull out another pokéball, but decided not to as he noticed the Riolu was aiming an aura sphere directly _at him_. He put his balls back in place and then ran away, swearing under his breath. "Bastard… These humans are the real criminals here. Kidnapping pokémon and forcing them into fights…" He was getting heated up again, but Elly just nuzzled his side and calmed him down, resuming their trip back to the hotel as normal. They walked by the cafeteria and had breakfast, and then went up to the room. Inside they found Emily and Luca.

The Eevee was caught up by some cartoons about a human raised by Pokémon trying to survive in society. The Lucario on the other hand, had set her book aside and was knitting what looked to be a long piece of cloth as she formed some conclusions about the book. This author in particular like to give hints about what's to come in the future of the story, and she just loved to guess. And better yet, each chapter was open and closed as if being a story of their own, at least so far as she had read, and for her it has been fun trying to know before hand what will come next chapter… even if she hadn't been able to predict any just yet.

Hearing the door, she looked at it and saw them, greeting them with a "Welcome back." with a warm smile as she went back to knitting. Elly noticed the Lucario and walked over to her, while Eric just approached the smaller Eevee and sat besides her, checking out what she was watching. While Emily indulged in a childish conversation with the Riolu, who had a smile on his face all the time from how excited she was, Elly looked at the bigger jackal with interest.

"Hello Luca…" She kept staring at the yarn. "Umm… so you do knitting?

"Yeah a bit." She answered calmly. "I made the scarf Hadrim was wearing last night." She said with a contented tone on her voice. "It's a little hobby and it helps pass time. More so when one's sick." She answered.

"Ooooh, that's so sweet… You know, the other day I found the yarn lying around, and I didn't know who to ask… Because you see, back home I realized that I've got quite a deal of free time, and since getting my paws on new books is actually rather difficult and expensive where we live… I was thinking on picking up another hobby, one I could do only at home and not when we were resting out in the open, such as reading… And thought that knitting would be excellent for that and making some more garnments for everyone, instead of buying them for the price of an arm and a leg..."

"Are you asking me to teach you?" Luca decided to try and go straight to the point, thinking that the blue eyed Eevee was trying to talk around the question. "Or you just need the tools?"

She gave her a sheepish smile. "Uuuh… both, really. I think I'd be able to get the yarn myself back home, but I could definitely use the lessons… and the tools for practicing. I'll get mine sooner or later, no need for you to give them to me."

"I know that last part." Was the simple answer the Lucario gave her. She held up her work for the Eevee to watch. "Watch closely." And then performed some patterns slowly for her to see how she did it. Elly observed and memorized every single move she did, making sure she took notice of how the loops were made in order to keep them together and look good, and she also saw how to alternate different colored yarns to make patterns.

While she worked on it, Luca looked at her, the movement for her being almost mechanical. "You think you can hold it with me?" She asked as she kept the movements slowly. "I mean, just hold the needles and try to follow my moves." She explained calmly.

Elly did just that, grabbing the needles with her psychic powers, feeling their weight in her mind, and their shape, and then slowly replicating the Lucario's movements, focusing so that she didn't miss a single loop.

Little by little, Luca let her take control of the moves, until she let go of the needles and let her work on it by herself. "Set your own pace. At first is a bit straining but when you get used you can only feel the muscles warming up, if you were using your paws of course." She said as she watched the Eevee work on her own, then falling silent and letting her concentrate.

By the time Elly had realized she had let go of the needles a few ten minutes had passed, looking up at Luca and blushing. "Oh gosh, I didn't mean to interrupt you if you were knitting!" She returned the needles to the Lucario. "But… Now I know how it works, thank you for showing me! Can we do this another time? And this time, I'll use my own needles and yarn."

"Don't worry, sweetheart, How do you think Hadrim learned to cook the basic mac' and cheese?" The Lucario giggled. "And I'll help you whenever you want." She added in the end, with a motherly smile on her face, this experience for the adult had felt like teaching her own daughter and she just couldn't help her expression, before she picked her work back up and resumed it.

Elly hadn't realized this, or it just hadn't dawned on her, but that expression in her face made that Espeon's face race back into her mind, the conversation she and Eric had been holding on the beach coming back to her in full,both of them mingling and twisting around, warping her thoughts in a sudden instant. And with that image, came another, which was oddly confusing. It could've been a hallucination, her confused childish mind or truly a primal memory that she had kept within her… but she saw her mother and Blake, together… and for some reason didn't feel anything other than love emanating from them. She quickly shook her head, realizing how foolish she was being, but… it was still there.

It was around that time when the phone to the room rang, and since everyone else was kind of busy Eric was the one to get up and walk over to it… and then realized that he didn't exactly know how to use the phone itself. He looked at Luca in a panic, pleading for help with the infernal machine that was on the verge of making his ears bleed. If only he knew...

Ichiro was the one to pick it up tho. The boy coming out of the room shirtless and only with some shorts on and a sleepy as hell face. "Yeah?" He asked. There was a hurried voice coming through the phone receiver, then the human rubbed the bridge of his nose and then gave the phone to Eric. "I'm hearing a Pidgeot, so I'm guessing it's for you…" He handed the device to Eric and when the Riolu took it, the human went back to sleep. The Riolu **really** didn't like that tone in his voice, grabbed the phone and put it near his right ear.

"Serge? What is it?"

"Uuuh… Eric? We… uuh… ran into a few problems."

* * *

 _The morning had begun just fine: they all got out of bed half an hour after Eric and Elly had departed. They made as little noise as they could, which meant that they meant a terrible amount of noise and awoke some of the Kaisers in the process, what with grabbing bags, putting in necessities and also trying to convince Jake that "The Art of War" wasn't a necessity. In the end, Serge grabbed some shades that he eloquently "borrowed" from one of the humans in the room, though he claimed he did it in a nice way, since he left them an I.O.U. with fantastic calligraphy, and then they all left: Zed and Nox were on his back, Lucy was walking and running ahead, mostly running ahead, and Jake was carrying their bag with all their stuff and maps._

 _The trip to the bus station had been as simple as it could get, and they all got on the bus with little to no ceremony. The only thing to note, or at least that's what Serge claimed, was how absolutely everyone bunched up around them, forced them to stand in the middle of the moving bus, and the others had to pile up on top of his head, as if they were some kind of Leaning Tower of Pokémon that was on his head. What he didn't mention was that, once again, he almost had a panic attack, though he had to work extra hard to not start panicking like crazy in front of the others and potentially blow his cover. After the extremely awkward ride, they all got to the city… And that's when things went from good to great._

 _The city was fantastic: huge, packed with different types of people and pokémon. They saw shops everywhere, and they couldn't help but go check them out, but some of them had immense queues and lines of customers waiting outside and..._

* * *

" **Serge just get to the point!** " Eric suddenly burst out, after having standing still for more than 20 minutes listening to the Pidgeot blabber on and on through the phone.

"Jeez, I was just trying to set up the scene… alright alright, so here's what happened: we got here, and there were a lot of shops we wanted to check out, right? So we were all walking together and I guess me and Nox just kinda got distracted with a certain shop and… when we turned around, both Jake and Lucy were just gone." He dropped the piece of 'bad news' just like that, but from the Pidgeot's tone Eric could guess that he wasn't done just yet. "And so Zed got mad and scared, started shouting at us to find the others, but I couldn't carry two pokémon at the same time because of my chest so we decided to leave Zed there and told him to not move… and we didn't find anyone, and now we can't find Zed either." The last part of the story was explained really quickly.

There was an extremely long pause after that, and Eric just looked up from the phone, then turned to look at the rest of the pokémon in the room, and Elly could've sworn she saw his left eye twitch. She looked at the rest of the pokémon and mouthed the words "Oh no". Eric sighed. "Well, in other news, we figured out what they're serving on the menu tonight." He said all of a sudden.

"Oh, really? What is it?"

" **Roasted Pidgeot with a side dish of Houndour chops you idiots!** " He suddenly mouthed out, and went ballistic. " **How the hell did you even manage to lose everyone like that in the first…** " He looked at the clock on the phone. " **Two hoooouurrrs!?** " He was just beyond stupefied and that point.

"Well, I mean to be fair it was just one hour, because the first one was just us getting here…"

" **YOU'RE NOT HELPING YOUR CASE!** " Now he was being really loud, and they could all tell he was livid with the flying type. " **The one time, Serge! The one time!** **And why haven't you tried contacting everyone through your crystals?!** "

There was an incredibly long silence after that, and Eric's gaze quickly turned to face the entrance to the room, and sure enough he saw them: five crystals of different colors, all hanging from the same coat hanger and with big note with the words 'DO NOT FORGET' written on them in fantastic calligraphy. Because there was some kind of silver lining to that horrible situation.

"Alright, look, we're gonna hang up now, because we gotta try and find at least one of them… and besides, we only managed to call you because this phone booth had some quarters on it: Jake ditched us and took all the money with him." Eric was beyond fuming as Nox's voice came in through the receiver, and just as he was about to start shouting bloody murder, the communication cut.

"Wha- **They hung up on me?!** " He shouted, staring at the artifact that was making him be on the verge of going insane, and just placed the phone back in it's spot, said he was going for another walk, and left the room in a hurry, leaving everyone in the living room as he went out looking at the door.

"I think someone just went to hunt out dinner." Emily commented, after a few minutes, with a bit of a smirk on her muzzle. Luca sniggered, trying to hold back, while Elly couldn't help but laugh as she said that, yet at the same time she was internally regretting ever letting those five go all by themselves, and almost as angry as Eric was… just not showing it like that.

While all this unfolded, a certain emerald eyed Eevee kept with her mind games. She had gotten out of some dire situations but while she was setting up another one, the box with the pieces of the chess fell from the table, she yelped at the noise and then jumped down to start picking everything up. "Aww… duck!" She said as she put the pieces back into the box.

After Elly calmed down she looked at her friend and approached her. "Need help with that?" She said as she finished picking everything up with her powers and put the box in it's place again.

"Fuf… Thanks, Elly." Natalie said. "One thing I miss, being able to pick more than one piece at a time." She commented getting back over the table, ready to set up more situations, but then an idea popped in her head. "Would you… like to have a match?" She asked the older. "I've been bored all morning and ended up just placing the pieces randomly and trying to win with the one that seemed that was going to lose."

"Hmmm… alright, sure! It's not like Eric's going to be in the mood for anything asides from talking with Serge after he comes back… It's been a long time since I last saw him this mad." She said, arranging the pieces so that they could play.

The emerald eyed tilted her head in slight confusion. "Did I miss something?" Elly narrowed her eyes and looked at her friend. That was some concentration indeed… but she still explained everything to her.

"Well. On the bright side I can see… at least no one tried to snag them." She was talking about the crystals. "Believe me those things are really pretty and any thief that would want quick profit would try to get them."

"Well… if you want to look at it like that…" Elly picked the black chess pieces and then moved first, following the rules they had in their world, not knowing that it wasn't that way there.

"I don't mind you moving first, but normally we flip a coin." Nat said seeing this, not actually bothered by this fact and just moved her piece. The game went on calmly, each move taking more time after certain point, and also with some calm chat between them. Talking about trivialities, at one point talking about boys even, Nat surprisingly calm thanks to her concentration on the game and her next move, yet she got nervous when a certain Jolteon was mentioned. After that and a bit of a silent time, they kept on playing and talking, the younger Eevee scratching her forehead as she could with a paw as she got into a really dire situation with with her king surrounded and only a few more pieces on the board.

Elly had a smirk on her face. "Looks like you were biting more than you could chew…" She moves her pieces closer, cornering her completely.

"Don't tease!" The younger whined a bit as she tried to get out of that situation. "Besides, never said I was going to win."

"Yeah, but you were trying to win… and that's cute." She said, moving around her chess pieces with glee, knowing that victory was near.

"I said don't tease!" The emerald eyed Eevee was starting to feel bothered by that, yet she tried to relax and concentrate on her next move, convinced she still had a chance, looking at her pieces and trying to see what she could do, one could take one of Elly's pieces but then another would just do the same with it, while others could only get in the way to protect the king, or corner it even more, and she could only protect her king or move in few directions.

As she pondered her options she saw her Horsea, it had one of Elly's pieces in line, but risked being her next piece out. The piece then gave a little shake all of a sudden, that went unnoticed for the younger Eevee as she was more concentrated on the moves and surviving this. Elly however, did notice it, but didn't say anything, instead waiting for her move, but keeping extra attention in those strange movements. In the end, Natalie moved the Horsea and took Elly's piece to have more room with her king with at least one less threat.

Elly then decided to start lengthening the game, still keeping up the pressure but still making sure that she survived for a bit: she wanted to see if that little jerk had been just her imagination or there really had been something there, because she could feel a very faint psychic presence emanating from it.

Nat on her side took her time with her moves, thinking them over, weighting the risks and then deciding if it was worth risking losing a piece or not or if it was better to protect the king. While she was thinking her last move with the tower, once again the piece gave a little twitch, and just a little bit later, another one that made it fall on its side, the sound and the change in position calling Nat's attention out of her thoughts, and looked at it with a blank stare. "Ok, what?" She let out, setting the piece upright again.

"That wasn't me." Elly quickly defended herself, but she did have a slight idea of who it could've been. "Keep doing that." She said, looking at the Eevee know, really interested.

"Doing what? I didn't even touch the piece." Nat said as she scratched her head a bit, then decided to just go back to the game and what could she do with the tower.

"Just… keep doing that, alright? Focusing so hard on the piece, as if you want it to move, you're trying to visualize the movements… just try it. Trust me."

Natalie was already doing that, she had decided on a move and was thinking other options. It wasn't long before the tower gave a little jerk that made it rotate in place the moment she was about to move it forwards. That weirded the younger Eevee out a lot, taking her paw away quickly. "What the… what's happening to this piece?" She let out the first thing that came to mind, she was sure she wasn't doing anything herself.

"I knew it… alright, now keep trying to move it. But don't touch it. Just focus, and picture it moving forward. Keep focusing, but strain yourself too hard…" She really didn't know how to explain it, as it was something you just had to feel, but Elly now knew that Natalie had that potential.

"What are you talking about, Elly?" Natalie asked her, looking at her friend as if she was playing a really bad prank on her. She shook her head and motioned at the piece, urging her onward. In the end Natalie did as told and pictured her decided move for the tower in her mind while looking at it, her eyes did the movement as well as she was focused on the piece, the which started to shakily slid over the board. Nat caught her breath as her mind went blank again and the piece stood in place after getting to the next square, she was getting scared, for lack of better terms.

"You felt it didn't you? For a second, it felt as if you were grabbing the piece, didn't it? It didn't offer any resistance, but it was extremely heavy, because you were applying little to no force, and it moved slightly…"

"What are you trying to get at?" Her voice sounded unsure and the shaky breathing afterwards gave away her nervousness, she had felt something as if holding something, yes, and also as if she was pushing it. She shook her head and looked up at her friend again, this time maybe she could notice something on the younger's forehead, a flash of black right in the center of it.

"What I'm getting at is that you might be developing psychic powers… also, what's that on your forehead?" She asks, leaning down to try and get a better look through the fur.

With that, Natalie just stood looking at her for a moment. "So, that was psychic?" She asked as she let the other inspect her, resisting the urge to scratch her forehead again as it had gotten insanely itchy the whole morning. She knew of the move and what psychic types could do but feeling it herself was a different story, she didn't knew what it was and so it had scared her a lot.

"Yeah, really weak, because it's just your first time… but that was definitely some kind of psychic burst, so you're definitely developing something." She smiles. "Looks like you may end up becoming like me: a psychic Eevee!" She seemed pretty excited to have discovered the younger Eevee's potential. It made her feel like some sort of teacher.

Natalie blushed slightly, feeling praised in some way for the other's tone of voice and the younger Eevee scratched her forehead once again as she let out a half sigh half laugh. The action moved the fur there and allowed Elly a better look at what she had glimpsed just a moment before. Natalie had pitch black onyx gemstone on her forehead, and the younger Eevee seemed oblivious to this fact completely. The gemstone reflected the light of the sun that hit it gently and it was oval in shape.

As the two females were at their things, back into the living room there was a momentary flash of light. "...two really have to stop going at it that hard!" Hadrim was scolding someone as he, Radius, Dust and Dark appeared in the middle of the room, the last two covered from head to toes in bruises and nasty cuts, yet they that didn't look that seriously hurt. "You are going to end up killing each other one day!" The Espeon finished his speech there. He had put a stop to the two youngsters 'sparring' as he saw they were getting much more than friendly and had started to treat it as a genuine fight for their lives. It never crossed through the psychic type's head that they got this serious when they trained, he even had asked Rad, who told him that they were being gentle, that normally they actually try to knock out each other faster. There was when he decided to end it himself, holding both of them with his psychic and stopping them in their tracks as the Zoroark was about to land a hard blow on the Riolu.

The two on the receiving end of this words were silent when the older Eeveelution ended and stood looking at them. "Let's get you two patched up." He said with a more calm tone now and letting out a sigh and the four went to the kitchen for the first aid kit. As they were carried away, someone knocked on the door, Emily going to it and, after thinking for a bit imitated what she had seen a few times Shade and Natalie do, jumping up and pushing down the door knob, managing to open it enough so it didn't close and let in whomever was outside, pulling the door open afterwards. Eric pushed the door open the rest of the way as he came in, taking care to not hurt Emily, and then closed it.

"Finally back? Did you cool off a bit?" Elly teased and he just mumbled something and then grabbed a chair and sat down right next to the phone.

"I can't believe this… yes, I've calmed down a bit, hopefully I won't have a heart attack. By the way, did they call while I was gone?" The older Riolu asked, and everyone shook their heads no.

"Did something happen?" Radius said as he came out of the kitchen, not looking so beat up but a healing cut was present on his face, nothing serious.

Elly opened her mouth to speak, but Eric just looked at her, softly groaning. "No." She opened her mouth wider. " **Elly, no.** " She couldn't possibly open it any further. " **No.** "

"The others got lost in the city and Serge and Nox called Eric to tell him just that, he got mad and he walked out of the room." Elly summarized everything in just that short sentence, and right afterwards Eric just slammed his face on the desk, making the phone come off and the assistant's voice coming through the receiver. He quickly scrambled to put it in place, but it kept on sliding off the thing as he put it there, progressively getting more and more nervous until he just shouted and slammed it, effectively silencing the voice… and making everyone in the room look at him as if he was a madman.

"This is why I said we should've gone with them… I knew this would happen, deep within me, but I said 'Ok, let's give them the benefit of the doubt.' Nope. Next time I'm going to buy some spiked collars and hold them all with a leash."

Radius just shrugged at this and went to lay down on the couch, stretching a bit. "There are two adults, right? Why call you then?" He asked all of a sudden.

" **Do you honestly think that Serge counts as an adult?** " Eric stated drily.

"Touche… But I thought at least Jake is adult enough."

"I'm willing to bet that he saw some kind of bookstore or something culture related and just walked towards it immediately." Elly guessed… and she was willing to bet actual money that that was exactly what happened.

"Maybe Serge and Nox wanted Elly to ask Jake where they are?" Emily thought outloud.

"Wait! They got split up too?"

The Eevee just nodded. "Everyone just got split up. Aaaaaand, to put the final nail in the coffin…" She pointed at the coat hanger next to the door, and sure enough, there were their crystals.

"Well going with what Emily said, is not like **you** can't do that. Or you can't reach that far?" The Jolteon asked.

"No, I don't reach that far. You **can't** reach that far, and if you **somehow** managed to, your head hurts like hell. Hadrim can do it because he's your father, so the bond within you is really intimate, but Jake and I are just good friends, not mates, like Eric and I are." The Riolu heard this and shook his head, for a second imagining Jake instead of himself with Elly… and then facepawed and went back to worrying about the phone. The nerves were really getting to him. Just thinking that at any given time a trainer could just walk up to them and capture one of his friends and disappear forever, be brainwashed or… something along those lines just made him really afraid.

"Right… sorry." He lowered his ears a bit and said no more on the topic. Elly chuckled and told him to cheer up, he'd get it in time. After a few more minutes of idle chatting, Eric finally received a call, and picked up the phone.

* * *

 **2 hours earlier…**

" **Alright people!** " Serge shouted at the top of his lungs as he stretched his wings and got ready for action, snapping noises coming from his wings as he stretched, and then suddenly shouted as he bent forward. "Ouch, wing cramp! Ouch ouch ouch!" While he was moaning in the background, the others were taking in the scenery of the entire place. The city was **massive** , or at least it was for all of them, since they had never been anywhere else but Treasure Town at that point of their lives, so needless to say, they were all extremely excited. Right off the bat, there were some pretty huge buildings, all of them with glass windows which reflected the light of the sun, making some really pretty colors and also making Jake's life miserable as he scrambled to find shade while taking in the sight, feeling the heat seeping into him.

"Wow… this place is… really big. I was expecting something a bit more… modest, like that coast town we went to during the body swap thinga majing." Lucy muttered as she turned around and had her eyes immediately stolen away by the large blaring LED screen, playing random commercials high above their heads, and all while Zed cowered besides her and trembled like a leaf, as he wasn't a fan of there being so many people.

"Well, if this place is so big, then we better get to exploring it!" Nox jumped on top of Serge's back. "Onward!" This cheer only helped to make Serge look up at him and groan, then shook him off and the Houndour tumbled to the ground with an 'Awwww'.

"Only one who is catching a ride on this bird's back is Zed, and just because he can't walk. Having one of you fat asses on my back while I'm flying is enough, but I'm not some kind of all-terrain Rapidash, so get the hell off!" As he insulted basically everyone in the team, though as always did it with his own ironic tone, he picked up Zed with one of his wings and put him on his back. The Shinx rolled her eyes.

"Our fat asses? You mean Elly's." Nox made as if he was shot and played dead, then he and Serge made a hissing sound. "I mean, it's kinda true! She's still fit as a fiddle, but she's been getting pretty large… probably because of all that chocolate."

"Preposterous. That is just a running joke that she and Eric have established. Her body mass has not changed at all, even after ingesting such large quantities of sweets." Nox got back up on his paws as Jake said this, and they all began walking in the same direction, albeit Jake stayed in the shade.

"I mean, it's probably because you're not staring at the interesting bits…"

Serge looked at Nox, alarmed. "Eric has killed others for lesser crimes."

The Houndour just shrugged. "Ignorance is bliss then. Besides, the hard part is **not** looking at it… But I digress, she's not my type."

"Neither is it mine."

"She has already been claimed by Eric… although she is quite THE intellectual, she does not attract me sexually either."

Zed kept quiet throughout this entire conversation, and Lucy just sent him a look of approval, as if saying 'Yeah, you better keep quiet about that.' "So anyways… where do we go first? I'm trying really hard to change the conversation topic from my best friend's ass to something else, because this conversation is just getting **weird**."

"Indeed, considering we are having a fruitless conversation about changes that aren't happening: her rear is of normal size, end of discussion." Jake cut the conversation there, making both Nox and Serge roll their eyes as he killed the joke once again.

"Can't even take a joke… alright, it's true, whatever… Oooh, what's that over there?!" Serge asked, his attention being drawn to the nearest shop to the left of them: it was a small videogame shop, with many different game systems and videogames on display, and a TV playing advertisements for other games. Both of them were in a trance as they watched the advertisement for a game where the player controlled one hundred small heroes who acted as one and beat the snot out of aliens.

Nox's gaze left the gaming shop and then noticed the other shop not too far away. "Wait! Look at that! It's that anime we love!" Nox shouted, and both he and Zed looked over, and the former's eyes went wide open. He ran over to the glass pane, forcing Zed to hang on for dear life and they both started eyeing everything inside the shop, seeing references and joking together.

"Alright, alright… guys please, we gotta go see some other stuff. And besides, look at those prices." The Zorua on top of the Pidgeot pointed out the rather outrageous prices, but they weren't deterred.

"Whatever, we'll have enough money… alright Jake, where are you, we need m-" The flying type looked around to try and find the Sneasel, but he was nowhere to be found. "Uuuh… where's Jake?" Both of his companions looked around, but didn't find the ice type.

"Wait… where's Lucy?!" Zed shouted all of a sudden, also noticing the absence of his mate, extremely worried.

"Wait… what. No! They were here just a second ago!" Nox shouted, looking around alongside Serge, whose height surprisingly didn't help.

"Damn it, there's way too many people on this street… Alright, here's what we'll do: Nox, you go back the way we came, I'll go up ahead, and Zed, you stay here and wait until someone comes up. Don't move, got it?" Zed's face went to one of pure horror as Serge explained their course of action.

"Wait, you're gonna leave me alone like this?!" His pleads were only answered by assurances that they'd be back in just a few minutes, and they left him there, in front of the shop. The Zorua just crumpled up into a ball of fur, shivering and shutting himself away from the outside world as unknown and to his eyes, scary people, started walking past him. The minutes passed, and neither Serge nor Nox were back, even after all of that, and he became even more compact than before. As he was crumpled up like that, two policemen walked by, and noticed the tiny Zorua on the ground.

"Oh, a shiny Zorua… Hey, little guy, where's your trainer?" The younger one asked, going to pet Zed. The older one, and probably of higher rank, stopped him however.

"I don't think he has a trainer… by the looks of it, he seems like a wild one. That being said, it's rare for a pokémon like this to be abandoned in the middle of the street. It's mother could be somewhere." He scrambles to find a pokéball to take him to the police department and wait for it's mother there, but he groans and swears under his breath. "I didn't bring any free pokéballs. You?"

The other cop does the same, and looks at the sky, as if making a vow or something, and the older one laughs. "Guess that answers that question…"

"Well, we can't just **leave** it here, can we? It looks really young by how scared it is, what if a trainer comes by to capture it? Or it goes into the road and gets run over or something?" The older policeman bit his lower lip. That was something neither of them could live with, since their duty as policemen was to protect humans and pokémon alike.

"Alright, let's just grab it, take it to the station and have an announcement be made or something." He reaches down for Zed and grabs him by the scruff of his collar, but since the poor thing was so scared it couldn't do anything other than whimper and tremble uncontrollably. "Wow, it's really scared."

"Probably waiting for it's mother… Don't worry little guy, you'll be safe with us." His words didn't exactly reach Zed, whose mind was going far into his own past and reliving horrible moments, finding it tempting to just transform and get the hell out of dodge… But he decided against it and stayed like that, mainly because he was so terrified.

Just as the cops left the area and crossed the street to their car, Serge and Nox came back to the same spot, and looked at the spot where they had left Zed. He was gone. "Fuck. Fuck. **Fuck.** " Serge looked around. " **Zed?! Zed where are you?!** " They didn't get a response, as Zed was already in the cop car as the duo of humans conversed through radio to inform their station of the situation. Not only that, but there were other pokémon in the car: a Growlithe, an Arcanine and a Luxray, all of them looking at the dark type with pity.

"Alright, we fucked up…" Nox spoke up, now really stressed out. "We gotta call Eric and Elly, use the crystals."

"We fucking **forgot them** , **remember?!** I told you guys we were forgetting something, that there was something missing and we should go back. ' **NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH DAWG,** let's just get on the fuckin' bus and go already!'" Serge imitated Nox's speech patterns as he spread his wings and bent forward, getting right in Nox's face. "Now it's me who's gonna get his ass roasted, just fucking wait for this shit…"

Nox grumbled underneath his breath. "Sorry… I just didn't think it'd end like this man, I apologize… I was just too excited, ok?!"

"You're always too excited kiddo! Always going everywhere and doing everything: we have a feast in front of us, "I'm gonna eat more than you!", we go on a trip "I'll get there faster than you!", and every single time you get into these horrible situations because of it. Lemme guess, you wanted to prove you were more mature than you really are, didn't you, and intentionally forgot the crystals so that we wouldn't ask Eric and Elly for help if we got in a pinch, am I right?" Serge's guess didn't get any answers, and the Houndour was dead silent.

There was an awkward silence between two as everyone on the street either walked past them or glanced at the pair, which were having a discussion at the moment. Serge ended up cracking a slight smirk, rubbing his forehead. "It's funny how much you remind me of myself when I was your age." Nox looked up at him at this simple remark, and the Pidgeot rubbed his head affectionately. Nox could feel the weight behind those words, which he had uttered in an affectionate, yet nostalgic manner, very unlike himself.

"Serge…"

"Cheer up, kiddo. I get where you're coming from, but we gotta talk about some stuff. Not now, definitely, probably later… Because as things stand are asses are grass and Eric's gonna be the lawnmower is we don't do something about it." Nox got the message pretty quickly, and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Alright… but we need to find a way to contact them." He really just had no idea how they were going to do that though. Their position couldn't possibly get any bleaker.

"I gotcha covered fam." Serge responded with a smirk, and pointed at a phone booth, where there was a panicking human talking on the phone. "Watch this…" He walked over to the phone booth and once there, he stared at the human, who took a few seconds to actually finish his phone call. The unnerving sight of the Pidgeot got to him, and he quickly scrambled out of the booth and walked away in a hurry, looking back to make sure the massive bird wasn't following him. Once the human was out of sight, Serge walked into the booth and checked the top of the phone. "Dumbass..." He muttered as he picked up the leftover quarters the other had forgotten. "Still got it though… that's good." He muttered as he twiddled with his feathers, putting the money into the slot and telling Nox to come over as he punched in the "emergency number" that was written on the box.

"Yeah, hello? We need to get the number for a hotel near this area…" The Pidgeot's words made Nox's smile grow even bigger.

* * *

 **30 minutes later...**

A few blocks down the same road, Jake was walking around and looking at the magnificent buildings and skyscrapers around him, taking it all in as his imagination ran rampant: how'd they manage to build such tall buildings? What materials had they employed to hold that building up and not have it crumble under it's own weight? How had they achieved such varied forms to be possible without sacrificing the building's integrity? He just had to know, as he was running several calculations through his mind and just couldn't find the solution to these riddles.

However, his thoughts were halted when the stepped into an area where the shade stopped protecting him of the sun's merciless heat beams, and his foot lightly tapped the scorching concrete, making him wince in pain and then retreat back to safety. He glanced forward, mystified by the sun's presence in that area, and then realized the severity of his situation: the sun was nearing its apex in the sky, and because of the arrangement of the buildings, soon enough, they would not protect him from the intense heat. He glanced forward, and found his salvation: across the street he could see a large sign with the words " **Aiden and Sons' Bookstore** ".

The main problem however, was that this store and his current location were separated by an entire street, and he'd be forced to cross the black asphalt to get to it. Because of it, he knew that this mission would be the hardest to date: the hardness of the concrete, added to the fact that the sun had been mercilessly bathing it in it's glorious rays, plus the fact that it would be shining down on him probably meant that he would probably be walking on hot embers, something that he wasn't looking forward to.

He had noticed that the rest were long gone, probably lost in the sea of creatures walking through those streets, but they'd meet sooner or later, it was just a matter of time. He had more hurrying matters to attend to however, such as the bookstore in front of him, and looked around, evaluating his options and trying to find an alternative route. No such thing in his field of view, and so he only had one option. He tentatively placed a foot on the black surface, imitating the others around him and doing so near the traffic lights, where a mob was already gathering to cross the street. It wasn't as bad as hot embers, but it was much worse than he had expected, and he jumped back and planted his left foot on the ground, and he could've sworn he heard a hissing sound, though he believed it was his imagination.

"Very well… nothing is impossible. All problems can resolved except for death itself… It is time to brave on and face… the heat." He told himself all of these things, and the moment the traffic lights went green he darted forward. What he hadn't taken into account was that the area he had just tested hadn't been under the sun for that long, maybe an hour or so, but the center of the street had been mercilessly assaulted since the first hour of the morning… and was actually almost as hot as those scorching embers he dreaded. He leaped from spot to spot, white line to white line as he crossed the street by making large and panicked, and yet graceful leaps, as if it were an ice skater leaping and jumping. The whole thing lasted a total of three eternal seconds, and halfway through it he felt as if a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders, and could move much quicker... and seconds later he finally reached the other side's sidewalk, where the library awaited, and where the sun had stopped shining for quite some time, and even if the heat in the air was asphyxiating, his feet were no longer burning… they were just singed.

Still, he had done it, so he had made some progress… and just as he looked up he noticed a very familiar pair: a Pidgeot and a Houndour just looking at him, really confused, as they were about to cross the street. Sure enough, from the side, Jake might've looked somewhat graceful, but from the front one could see his panicked and downright delirant face as he surely thought he would trip face first into that scorching ground and then become fried roadkill. And because of all these things, plus the fact he had dropped the bag with all their money and maps in it, thus explaining his sudden lightness, resulted in him looking at his colleagues awkwardly.

"I… can explain."

* * *

 **Present**

"...Alright alright, we fucked up big time earlier, but hey, at least we found Jake, right?" Serge said, looking at the Sneasel on his back. They were standing under the merciless sun, but thankfully Jake was prepared this time… and for him, being "prepared" meant wearing a red cap with the slogan "Get Smoked" on it, a vanilla ice cream and some ice cream sandwiched hidden away in the backpack he was carrying, keeping them cool with his body temperature.

Some more shouting was heard through the receive, and Serge kept on nodding and saying 'Uhuh', 'Yeah' or 'Gotcha', or a combination of the three. However, his thoughts were racing. 'Alright, ok, I get it, I fucked up, let me go, I got it I'm an idiot, alright, I know what you're gonna tell me, just let me fuc- No **shut up already please!** ' Serge kept on mocking Eric by voicelessly moving his beak, making Nox chuckle and Jake roll his eyes until the Riolu was finally done lecturing him.

"Now, find Lucy and Zed, and get on the next bus home after lunch, if you still have money by then, that is."

"There is no need to worry, Eric, there's still plenty of money in this b-" As he was finishing that sentence, a Poochyena jumped out from behind the phone booth, right out of the corner of their eyes and lunged for the Sneasel. He howled out as he tumbled back and off the Pidgeot's back, his cap and ice cream flying up in the air while the Poochyena scrambled to it's feet, grabbed the bag with his fangs, the whole two boxes of ice cream six ice cream sandwiches each falling to the ground, and then took off with it. With an incredible display of skill, Jake stood up, picked up the cap as it was about to fall to the floor and then extended his right claw, the ice cream cone falling right into place once more. He put the cap in it's rightful place… only for the ball of ice cream to plop on it, much to his annoyance.

After the commotion was over Serge slammed the phone, cutting the call short again, and finally turned to face his two companions. "What the fuck just happened?"

"I think… we just got robbed! That Poochyena took the bag!" The fire type looked at the Sneasel. "Ice, did you catch it?"

'Ice', however, was too distracted wiping the ice cream off the cap, doing a good job too, leaving it almost perfectly clean. "No, I did not… but thankfully the ice cream fell out of the bag."

"The f- Dude, what about the money?! Without that we can't get back home!" Nox complained.

"Well, that isn't entire true, we can still walk, and if we must, Serge can carry us."

"Yeah, and Nox here has a girlfriend. I got a better idea: how about we leave the ice cream and go catch that guy before he disappears?!" He shouts, taking off after the thief. Nox did the same, although he took the liberty to snatch the now empty ice cream cone from Jake's claws, much to his anger, as the Sneasel then grabbed his valuable provisions and ran after them. The trio pursued the quadruped thief for entire blocks, managing to trip on absolutely every single crack and irregularity on the sidewalks and roads, much to the Poochyena's laughter.

"Welcome to the city, country boys! What, mommy never taught you how to dance?!" He kept on taunting them, but even he couldn't outrun them because of the bag he was carrying with his maw, which obstructed his vision and slowed him down, making him bump into a handful of humans… albeit not as many as Serge, who was literally crashing into everyone and pushing everything off the road. They came across a human in some sort of white attire and tainted apron with yellow and red stains, and his pokémon, a Granbull with very similar attire, serving some hungry customers, like pedestrians or pokémon. While the Poochyena simply ducked under it, Serge, who had lunged forward to try and catch him, went face first into the stand, crashed into it and got it moving, and to the collective dismay of basically everyone nearby, the cart was actually near a curved slope, which lead down to a set of stairs which took one to park.

Serge panicked and tried to get off that hellish ride, but Jake and Nox had other ideas. "Nox, jump on it! We must keep up this momentum, we'll surely catch him!" Jake shouted as he jumped on the cart, and the Houndour did the same. Serge asked if they were insane, but neither answered, and instead Jake got to the front and leaned out. Sure enough, the cart picked up enough speed to almost blur down past the first half of the slope, just where the Poochyena was. Before the thief could notice it, Jake threw his arms forward and grasped his neck, pulling him up extremely quickly, and Nox started punching his face, making him pay for even daring to steal their money.

"Yeah!? Yeah?! What was that about not being able to dance, you little b-"

" **GUUUUUYS!** " Serge urgently screamed, still stuck in the iron bars of the stand. All three of them, even the thief, who was looking dazed, looked forward and saw what was coming up: the stairs had two rows of safety railings keeping anyone from accidentally falling off them… and they were headed straight towards them.

Lucy was just walking through the park, minding her own business and looking at the interesting shapes and forms of the playgrounds in that park, looking at the slides and the jungle gyms, even trying some and having a blast. However, all of a sudden she heard a symphony of screams above her as she paced near the stairs, and the next moment she looked up she found a Pidgeot who just shouldn't be flying, a Houndour who wasn't supposed to fly, same as the Sneasel and a Poochyena, all of them flying through the air accompanied by a flock of hotdogs, sausages and bottles of ketchup and mustard with their lids off. She joined them at the last second as her screams were drowned under the pile of meat, condiments and pokémon, the cart having crashed against the railings up above and stopped right there, but launching all it was carrying out into the open… and down to the park.

As the dust settled and the sausages and bottles stopped rattling, Serge got up, being the largest, he could get a good look at himself. He actually didn't have that much ketchup on him, but he did have a long, thick and meaty sausage in his beak, and after realizing what it actually was, he spit out the meat and started cleaning his tongue, yelling in disgust.

"Oh god! Oh Arceus!" Nox suddenly started shouting. "I'm dying! **I'm bleeding out!** Oh Arceus someone **help me! Heeelp!** " Nox's chest was covered in ketchup, from tail to neck, and actually looked like it was blood… if it wasn't for the fact that it was cold and kinda sticky, rather than liquid. Jake, who was right underneath, was also panicking, though for other reasons.

"You're not dying, you blabbering idiot! It is just ketchup, so silence! Where's the ice cream?! **Where's the ice cream?!** " Jake started rummaging through the pile of pokémon and sausages, pushing an unconscious Poochyena out of the way with their bag and money, and then found himself face to face with a furious Shinx.

"You guys are **the w-** " Serge, who was looking at the pair, quickly grabbed a bottle of mayonnaise and stuck it into the Shinx's mouth as she was about to start shouting.

"Anyone ever told you you look cuter quiet?" His mockery was only received by incomprehensible swearing and groaning, and was then followed by her trademark crackling sound, and Serge just squeezed the bottle, pushing the mayonnaise in, forcing her to cough and spit everything out, tainting her face in white. "Ooooh yeah, that's the money shot."

She roared, absolutely livid, pounced the Pidgeot and gave him a lifetime's worth of shocking in the short time that it took Jake to find the two boxes of ice cream sandwiches, miraculously intact, the sight almost bringing a tear to his eye. After Lucy was done almost shocking Serge to the point of making him a roasted turkey, she lifted her gaze and looked at the rest, clearing her throat.

"As I was… saying… You guys **are the fucking worst!** What is wrong with you?!" She looked at the place where they had come from, noticing a crowd of humans and two policemen standing near the crashed hot dog stand, which was actually perfectly fine, it was just that most of the things on the tray had just flown away with the rest. "Why were you all on a hot dog stand, chasing a Poochyena and carrying two boxes of ice cream sandwiches?! And why'd you have to pounce on me, of all pokémon?! And what's this white stuff?"

"You want… the funny slash dirty answer… or the honest answer?" Serge's joke was responded by yet another zap. "One word: ERIC." He simply shouted, playing dead on the ground.

"W- What the fuck does Eric have to do with all of this?! And where's Zed?!" Her question wasn't answered immediately however, as Nox was interrupted by the sound of those two policemen running up to them.

"Freeze!" The older cop shouted, pulling out tranquilizer guns, and everyone that was conscious rose their paws and wings, the two policemen looking at eachother, as they had expected some type of resistance. "Alright… what the hell's going on here?! Why'd you take that man's stand down the slope?!"

They all looked at eachother, knowing that if they didn't answer honestly they'd get in one hell of a mess. "Well… you see, officer, we were simply walking in the street when this Poochyena." Jake pointed at the offender, the younger cop looking at the gray canine. "Stole our bag and with it our money and provisions. We took off after the thief, and one thing lead to another…"

"And you all had to fall on me?! Look at my fur, it's a mess!"

"We're being held at gunpoint and the only thing you care about is your fur?! You need to sort your god damn priorities!" Serge shouted, sitting up and earning himself a glare from the Shinx. The cops looked at eachother, capable of understanding the group thanks to the translators in their ears.

"Alright, first of all, calm down. These guns are tranquilizers, so everything will be alright as long as you don't move around too much and don't do anything drastic. Now, we're gonna have to ask you to come with us, we have to find your trainer and…"

"Hey, partner, take a look at this guy." The younger cop said, and the older one looked at the Poochyena. "Doesn't he look like that thief that old lady was screaming about the other day? Look at the color of it's paws: a darker shade of gray, and that scar on its right side match the description." As he says this he pulls out a small PDA with images on it, and the first one was that of a shiny Zorua, which Lucy recognized instantly.

"Zed?!" She screamed, scaring the cops. "That Zorua… what did you do to him?!" While the older cop confirmed that this Poochyena was the one they were looking for, the younger one approached Lucy, crouched down and placed the PDA in front of her face.

"Do you know this little guy?" She looked at the image, and sure enough, it was Zed, down to the last hair on his furry and adorable face. She nodded enthusiastically. "Is he your little brother or something? We found him abandoned in front of a store an hour ago, and the poor thing has been crying and trembling ever since. It took a lot of convincing to get him to look at the camera…"

"Wait… little brother? No, he's my mate!" The cop looked at her, puzzled.

"Wait… how old is he?"

"Why? Does it matter?" She sounded offended, and he stood back up and shook his head.

"No, but… he acted like he was really young and scared of everything and everyone… even a cop."

"Because that's just the way he is… he's timid and shy and gets really scared when surrounded by others that he doesn't know what to do, or how to react, so he gets scared…" The cop frowned and the older cop tuned into the conversation at that moment.

"You sound like his protector." She once again growled, but he just shrugged in response. "Hey, don't get like that kitty, I'm the law here, and I'm just doing my god damn job, alright? Also, learn not to take everything to heart, lest you'll have a lot of problems." She only kept growling, even as the older cop looked at everyone else. "Alright, so this Poochyena you knocked out seems like the guy we've been searching for a couple weeks. There was a small bounty on his head, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay that money to the hot dog stand owner whose business you almost ruined." That last part sounded kinda snarky, which no one liked.

"Still, you're gonna need to come with us to the station to pick up your friend. It's a little ways away, but we'll get there eventually." The younger cop then picked up the unconscious Poochyena and walked away from the park, the group following him closely while the older cop stayed back and called someone on the radio, telling everyone that there was nothing to see there and that they should move along.

* * *

"Luuuucyyy!" Zed leaped into the Shinx's face, tackling her and hugging her, almost choking her. "Oh thank goodness you're alright, I was so worried something had happened to you when you disappeared…" Once he backed away he noticed the white spots on her fur. "Uuuh… what's that white stuff? It's sticky…"

" **Please kill me now.** " She mumbled under her breath, making Serge and Nox chuckle and hold back laughter, while Jake silently ate the fifth ice sandwich in a row and slowly handed one to both Lucy and Zed to improve their mood for the time being. It worked wonders, as they didn't complain while he answered some questions the humans were asking him.

"Place of residence?"

"Temporary. We are mere travelers."

"Trainer name?"

"None. We are wild pokémon."

"Really?" The policewoman looked at the Sneasel with her eyes wide open. "That's… unexpected. I wouldn't expect wild pokémon to behave like this… oh well, I'll take your word for it, since you were completely alone according to my partner's testimony…" Jake frowned as she looked down at the paper and wrote that down, then asked him some more questions.

Meanwhile, Lucy was confronted by an Arcanine and a Luxray. "Oh, about time you showed up! Poor guy was a ball of stress when we found him!" The Luxray's loud voice surprised her, albeit her shocked face triggered laughter in the Arcanine. "Easy Marco, I think she was just as surprised when he wasn't by her side… and by what he told us, it was those two that left him behind." The Arcanine pointed at both Serge and Nox, who were just lounging around and answering the other cop's questions.

"Oh they're gonna get a piece of my mind soon enough then…" The Luxray walked away and started shouting and those two, while Lucy looked at the Arcanine.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, excuse my manners: Name's Polo, and he was Marco." There was an awkward silence. "Huh… you aren't gonna laugh either? Ok then, you two are weird… Everyone in the station's always making fun of us for those two." The couple looked at eachother, beyond confused. "Anyways, our human partners found Zed here in the middle of street, took him to the car and then carried him back here. We tried to cheer him up a bit, and it worked…. sorta."

Zed looked down at the ground, blushing. "You did manage to make me laugh with those jokes… but you kinda treated me like a little kit…"

"Ah, sorry man… I should've asked you first. This has all been a breach in protocol after another, but hey, we caught that Pooch so all's well that ends well!" He chuckled, Zed and Lucy joining in with him for no particular reason.

"Aaaaand… last question! Alright, I'm gonna need everyone in the room, so listen up you five." The police woman suddenly spoke up, and the group turned to face her. "Alright, so, since you aren't owned by trainers normally we'd lock you up for destruction of private property and alteration of the public order, but… since you did it to catch that thief we'll let you off the hook on this one. We're just gonna have to take your names in case you turn up again."

"But we probably won't even come back to this city anymore…"

The woman looked at Zed and smiled. "Sorry little guy, but it's protocol. We already got yours… Zed, right? What's the rest?" The others told her their names, and as she wrote down each one a frown slowly appeared on her face. "Wait… Zed, Lucy, Serge, Jake and Nox? Did I catch that right?" They nodded. "These are… your real names?" They kept saying "Yes" with their heads. "I… You know I wasn't born yesterday, but… Alright then." She smiled to herself as she turned around and closed the file. "Had there been a Riolu and an Eevee with you and we would've had the whole team!"

Their minds didn't quite register that at first, albeit Jake was the first one to look at the woman, eyes wide open, and soon the others followed suit. "Wh- what… Could you repeat that please?" Jake politely asked.

"What, oh don't pay attention to that, it's just a reference!"

"No, we… we insist: what did you mean by that?" Serge's demeanor had changed dramatically, and his wings had shifted around, Zed crouching behind him, the tip of Jake's claws barely visible underneath his fur and little sparks of electricty going across Lucy's face, like little zig-zagging snakes scurrying about.

"Wait… really?! You guys don't know those books?! Oh man, now that's rich… Hey Pete! Pete!" There was a drawn out silence, and every single member present from Team Star looked at eachother in mild confusion.

"Yeah?" Responded a rather high pitched voice for coming from a male.

"These pokémon here don't know what AHR is!"

" **What?!** " The sound of a quadruped running down the hallway echoed in their ears, and when they saw him turn around that corner…

" **Aaaaah!** "

" **Holy shit it's him!** "

" **No fucking way!** "

" **You again?!** "

" **Impossible!** "

Their cries of surprise were loud, but well found, as from right around that corner had come a vicious looking Umbreon, with purple eyes, a bright red gem in his forehead and blood red rings.

The description fit perfectly.

It was Blake.

* * *

 **Eric: You hear that bro? I think that was the sound of brains exploding far away. Did you catch that? A bit like popcorn...**

 **Ray: Heh, that's a funny sound and it makes me feel good! But yeah I hope they like this, it's risky but I think it's a good way to answer some questions that a few might have on their heads… if they're sharp enough, which I think they are. Hell, I have a hammer in my chest and can't wait to read a review about this! xD**

 **On other things, there has been a few answers in this chapter, what about Zax and his team? A bit of backstory and the goal of this man. Also more disagreement in the group as well, which I think fits the scene. I think it does give away the vibe that that man has changed a lot… right?**

 **Eric: It was some much needed backstory… but hey, at least it came! Now we can really get this party rolling.**

 **Ray: I know maybe the story is a bit cliché on this part, but hey it's very hard to try and bring brand new ideas to an art that has thousand of years.**

 **(And finally, a post-edit note from me, Eric: I am probably going to be gone for the next two weeks because of exams. It's a god damn miracle that we managed to put out this chapter with all that's going on in my life right now, but I can't do anything else: next to weeks there's going to be radio silence from me. I am sorry, but this is the way things are. However, after that I'll have summer, and it'll be business as usual again!)**

 **(PS: I'd like to thank everyone who has supported the story so far. I love you all, and best of luck in your own exams (if you have any). See ya!)**


	17. Chapter 16 - Confessions

**Ray: New Chapter is done! And we are both on vacations woohoooo let's party, bro!**

 **Eric: Eh, I don't have firecrackers yet… but yes, vacations and I passed my exams! Everything is great!**

 **Ray: Well… I probably screwed one, but yeah vacations are always something to celebrate… even getting a headache after five minutes of party and go to play videogames to chill.**

 **Eric: Whelp, we each got our own thing. Anyways, let's get to the reviews so you guys don't have to wait any longer!**

 **Ray: Allow me a second bro. Hinebras, our friend. I think we have told this already, yet please stop being so reserved. Feel free to leave your theories or whatever crosses your mind, that's for you all guys to comment on things, this is a community after all, so don't be afraid to let us know what you think will come. Now on with the revs!**

 **Eric: And I see Luchux is here with us again! Yep, Blake's basically made everyone freak the hell out… you'll get your answers soon in this chapter! And just to debunk it so that everyone stops: Elly is NOT pregnant. They explained the reasons why it won't happen anytime soon in the chapter before the last one, so… yeah, sadly that's just not gonna happen. She's fit because she does a lot exercise, just like everyone in the group.**

 **Ray: she might go for some chocolate snacks but that we don't know and lack any proof to confirm that fact.**

 **Eric: And finally… West, you alright? You kinda broke for a second there, you got me worried. But yeah, there's still some tensions between Eric and Dark, but that may start fixing sooner than you think… also, poor Zed probably got it the worst out of everyone. And you better get those two furballs under control!**

 **Ray: I second Dark's and Eric's afair. Yet I'm still to figure out a way to make Dark break his block about apologizing for that night. He's said it a couple of times: saying "I'm sorry" won't cut it at all. So… we'll have to figure out a way to… "blow up" that inner struggling.**

 **Eric: Now, let's not dawdle any longer! Begin the chapter!**

 **Ray: Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 16**

 **Confessions**

The clock struck half past two when Eric and Elly got back from having lunch. They'd gone down there with the Kaisers and enjoyed some relaxing conversation, which helped take the worry for their friends in the city out of their heads, albeit once they were done they went back to the room and wait for another phone call, which was probably due a little later in the afternoon.

"This heat is absolutely horrible.. I'm slowly dying here." Elly said as they got out of the thankfully empty elevator. "Like, I can feel the sweat leaking out of every pour, this is disgusting!"

"I don't know what's worse, you saying that or experiencing it… either way, yeah, when we get this call we're going down to the pool." Eric pulled out the card and opened the door, and the moment they did so they were met by the crippling warmth that emanated from inside the room. Elly's legs gave way and she crumbled under the heat, and Eric backed away. "Arceus damn it they forgot to leave the AC on!"

"Honey, help me I'm melting into the flooor!" She said as she rolled around, and because of the carpeted floor for a second she did sink further in… but she was mostly kidding, though at that rate she might as well have evolved into a Flareon, because her body temperature was worrying. Eric bit the bullet and rushed inside, quickly grabbing the card and sliding it into the slot next to the door, turning on the electricity and of course, the AC. He dragged her inside, even against her constant complaining, mixed in with giggles, and laid her on the bed. Surprisingly, it was rather cool, and she screamed in delight and rolled around, messing up the sheets and managing to pull them from underneath the mattress.

Whilst she toyed around and slowly became an Eevee cocoon, Eric closed the door, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and went to check up on her… He found her standing on her legs, looking at him on the floor, but completely surrounded by the white sheets. "Boo." She attempted to scare him, and he faked surprise and horror, then smiled and gave her the bottle. She bolted out of the prison of heat she'd made herself, uncapped the bottle and chugged down a fourth of the thing in one go, letting out a long satisfactory sigh as she fell down on the sheets again, the bottle floating in mid air. "Saaaved!" She looked at the Riolu, who got up on the bed. "My hero~" She jumped up after him, the bottle following her and kissed him on the cheek.

"Oh, you're starting to get playful now…" He said with a smirk, resting his head on the pillow and laying down, and she did the same.

"Not everyone can save a lady in distress and look so sexy while doing it, you know?"

"I only gave you a bottle of water."

"Yeah, but it was just what I needed… a little bit more and you would've had to scrape off the carpet, like a Slugma."

"And what, we put you in a jar afterwards or something?" They both laughed, and after that he noticed she was looking at him. "What?" She curled up against his side.

"Are you feeling better?" There wasn't any need for her to say to what exactly she was referring to, because it was obvious. He smiled and nodded.

"Even though two of them are crippled, I knew they'd be fine. And hey, thankfully they called from the police station just before we were for lunch and they told us they were fine, which is a massive relief. Not only that, from the sound of it they didn't break anything, which… honestly? It was my main concern." Elly giggled.

"You don't mean that."

"Eeeeh, you'd be surprised. Serge and Nox have started to call themselves the "Mayhem Duo", just for how much of a headache they're when others go up against them."

"Especially now! That Houndour radiates heat wherever he goes, it's horrible!" She stood up, Eric looking at her with a bemused look on his face. "I am willing to stand the horrible sex jokes, his perviness and his all around immaturity… But the heat?! No siree! I've had it up to **here**!" Her ears were perked up and she touched the very tip of them, then she slowly fell backwards, her tail flailing about and making Eric both laugh and blush. She rolled on her belly, her ears flopping down in front of her eyes and then moved around as if she was a caterpie, turning to face Eric, then huffed to lift her ears, only for them to flap down.

"You look bored." She nodded. "Like, **really** bored." She nodded more enthusiastically, a smile on her face. "You're thinking about doing **that** , aren't you?" She nodded even more, and he sighed and shook his head. "I don't want us to be interrupted in the middle of it. Maybe you can read a book? I think the Kaisers and Jake may have taken something with them." She huffed, then kept up with her caterpie crawling until she flopped off the bed, hitting the sheets below with a soft thud, then walked over to the wardrobes and looked around.

Eric looked up at the ceiling and started pondering about all that had happened that day, and he saw books flying around from the corner of his eye. He thought about how angry he had gotten and how it probably wasn't worth it, how worried he had been about Serge being as immature as he always was, acting as if it had come as nothing short of a surprise that they eventually got lost… but from the sound of it, nobody was lost, nobody was hurt, and everything was ok, and yet he had gone ballistic and put the Pidgeot on blast. And on the phone no less. " _That still leaves the question as to why he's so… unreliable. One time he's the laziest bum of them all, others he gets up and gets shit done… So why?_ " He cleared those thoughts with a quick shake of the head. There wasn't any need to get so worked up about it… but he decided he'd most likely have a talk with him.

Now that he thought about it, he and Nox had that in common… except that Nox just didn't listen and almost got himself killed the last time, but so far he was learning the ropes. Still, he was much unreliable than Serge was. If he didn't fix that, then… Eric would have to talk with him.

It was then when the Riolu noticed that something was wrong, as he hadn't seen any books flying by. He stood up, looking at Elly. "You find something int-"

" **Eric!** " Her scream pierced his ear drums, but that was more than enough to make him jolt out of bed and hurry over to her side, noticing the flabbergasted look on her face.

"What?! What is it?!" He looked at what she was staring and his face also went blank. It was a book with a simple black cover, with the outlines of a Riolu and an Eevee on it, and behind them were a human with a jacket and an Umbreon with purple rings respectively. His eyes glanced over the author's name and directly read the title.

" _A Hero's Rebirth"_

He was speechless, stupefied almost, and his mate was frozen where she stood, her claws digging into the carpet below. He slowly bent down and grabbed it, pulling it closer to them, and she instinctively backed away, unable to look away from that Umbreon. Thankfully, the jackal turned it around and read the synopsis of the book… though there was no need: they both knew what it was about. After all, it was the book that narrated their lives during those two fateful years.

"Wh- who… why…"

"Why are we a book? Why is he there?! Oh Arceus I can't look…" She moved away and looked at the ground as Eric opened the book in a random page.

 _Eric roared out as he threw forward his right arm, thus hurling the staff directly at the golem's face with incredible strength. The weapon hit it's face, making the creature roar, some of the rocks on it's head cracking or falling off. The staff then flew away, falling a few meters further down the rift. The human ran backwards and jumped in the air to catch it, doing a backflip in the process and grabbing the staff in the process, landing back on his feet. The golem, now enraged, stared at the human, then roared out again. It's screaming was stopped by loud explosions coming from behind it. Dusknoir and Rick had already begun their assault, and they were attacking the legs, but it didn't look like it was doing much, since the creature didn't really pay much attention to them. Instead, it began running towards Eric again, making the process of hitting it with projectiles much harder._

As he read this paragraph out loud, he and Elly's eyes went wide open. "Wh- But… that's him! That's… Eric!" They looked at eachother, unable to comprehend what was happening.

Moments later, they could hear Luca's and Hadrim's voice as the Kaiser adult Pokémon came back to the room and opened the door. Being the only ones back, the rest being at their things at the pool or out for a stroll. "We're back." Luca called calmly as they went in.

As soon as Had stepped on the living room and saw the books scattered around, rose a brow, but the question died in his muzzle before he even asked as he saw Eric and Elly there, with that book. Luca also came in, and took seat on the couch seeing this scene, both now at los of words, only waiting for the other to start their questions.

"What…" Eric rose the book, showing them it's title and the cover. "... **is this?!** "

"A book with your story." Hadrim was the one to answer, his usual keep calm attitude showing up again.

However, his calm demeanour only helps to make the smaller Jackal even more irate. "You don't say! And why's it in your Arceus damned bag?! And why was Ichiro playing a game where everyone from our world appeared?!" He dropped that word like that, but at that point he didn't care anymore. "Oh yes, our 'world'! Big reveal, we come from another world! But it doesn't matter, because you probably **knew it beforehand**!" He slammed the cursed hardcover book on the bed and looked at him. "What is going on here?!"

"If you mean how are you here in this world, then beats me." Had said. "Would you have believed us if we told you you were characters of what for us is a novel?"

"Well, you could've just showed us, because apparently you've known for a long time, and have kept it from us for a long time." He sat on the bed. "Who are you? Can we even trust you after this? You know all that's happened in our lives, all that happened with Blake, with Team Uncario, what happened to Eric… Everything. And half of those things aren't properly known in our world."

"I admit we kept it a secret. We worried how you would've reacted to that." This time Luca talks, and points at the book. "And yeah we could have showed it to you the first day, when there's no trust at all between us. It's not weird at all to know that some strangers know your entire life…" She added with a sarcastic tone. "Or part of it."

"Luca save them the sarcasm, please." Hadrim asked. "Thinking about it at that time, we thought you would have taken the first chance to go away into a world you don't know at all. You now know the risks there are for both Wild and Urbanite Pokémon in this world. It doesn't take the fact that we hide it from you all this time, we know. We didn't care you were from another world. We just wanted to help in some way. And by we I mean Luca and myself. I think the others don't know this."

"Well, maybe Dust suspects something but it doesn't look like he cares either."

"So then you kept it to yourselves to make sure we didn't go anywhere and got ourselves captured, kidnapped or killed…" Eric pondered, letting the slight anger of having been kept in the dark for so long aside, while Elly was still breathing quickly and looking away from the book, repressing memories and effectively calming herself down. "That would explain why you kept us around after the fight Dust and Nox had, and why we weren't immediately kicked out after what happened with the Pursuer." Slowly, the pieces were starting to come together.

"Also you gave me quite a headache to get you all to our backyard." Hadrim dared a little joke. While Luca stood up and approached the bed, ready to pick up the book and put it on it's place, seeing as Elly wasn't taking part on this conversation. She wasn't really doing much other than keep blinking and shaking her head, getting angry with herself because of just watching that outline… it was stupid, but at the same time comprehensible.

The Riolu didn't take lightly to the joke, but at least he smirked. "Then I guess we're equal now: we kept the Pursuer's existence a secret to protect you, you didn't tell us who we were to protect us. Well isn't that just grand… Still, it's just… hard to digest that we are nothing but a book… a fairytale in this world."

"Well I wouldn't say you are now." Luca said. "For the rest of the world maybe. For us I don't think so. With all that's happened… You've helped us in a way. Being cheesy, we are part of each other's lives. For example if not for you I don't know if our young would've ever gone away from home for an adventure like that body swapping fiasco." She said after putting the book in the other wardrobe. After that she went to the bed and knelt down by it, reaching to Elly to try and help her calm down. Her face showing concern and worry.

"That still doesn't make it ok... Look, you may think that I'm exaggerating, that I shouldn't be having this reaction that it's not that big of a deal… probably I am, excuse me if I'm freaking out over seeing the two beings that basically fucked over our entire world and made us have to clean up after them…" He was panting just from how worked up he was. "But there's also the fact that there are many things that… most, if any, know about what happened, and from what I read, something we weren't directly involved in… I'm guessing that in that book you can also read what actually went down at the top of Temporal Tower and what Eric told us, right?"

"Yeah, it shows that as well. As well as it shows him also saying to remember him how you want to." Hadrim said. "And don't worry. It's a normal reaction… Or so I'd like to think. Being on an entire new world is already confusing on its own and then… well this."

"Wasn't there a moment in a mansion when someone told you about someone that writes this kind of stories for other worlds or something like that?" Luca asked Eric.

The Riolu struggled to remember that. "Doesn't exactly come to mind, but… yes, I do remember hearing something like that. My main concern was all of that information getting out somehow… I'm pretty sure one or two of our friends here wouldn't take that information lightly… let alone everyone back in our world, where Eric's still… well, a hero."

"Contrary to what actually happened… Lying to us and his friends, probably always looking out for himself so he could get back to the past and find Clades and leave our world for dead… and turns out in the end he was the cause of it all!" There was obvious resentment in Elly's words, who suddenly snapped out of her sulking state to express her disgust with the human. "I seriously doubt he ever really cared about us, but Eric disagrees…"

"Which is the reason why we struggle to come to a consensus whether we want to tell everyone the truth or keep it to ourselves… But that's not an issue that you have to be concerned with. What matters is that we need to stop lying to each other, because this isn't help anyone: we have to be honest between ourselves if we want to find out who the Pursuer is and save Dark and Natalie's lives. You're involved in our mess… and we're also involved in yours. So… fair's fair."

"That's true." Hadrim noded. "For now we can only hope this little trip threw that thing off your tail."

"Regarding Natalie and Dark. Nat is almost ready to evolve, she got her gem after all. And Dark needs to grasp his natural powers. For what my fiery fox here said to me of their sparring, he's not using his illusions that much when they could be a good resource in a fight. On the other side, both of them need to mature some more." Luca said. "By the way, speaking of Dark, are you two going to keep giving each other the cold shoulder for much longer?" The question made her mate look at her, his calm face broken into one of shock and surprise.

Eric looked at her, then rolled his eyes. "Maybe I am… desperate times call for desperate reasons. He's an idiot… he's going to need to do a **lot** of making up for me to change that opinion… but I'm far more willing to forgive him now, especially after what I've been hearing from his sparrings. And besides, we never considered letting them die as an option."

"I still don't approve that kind of sparring. They could end really bad. But I can't deny he's improved." Hadrim commented.

"You know? There's something we do when we don't know how to tell things to fix this kind of issues between us Pokémon. If you can't start talking, then go for fighting. Battles of any kind pump us but also build up some frustration and at some point it just burst out, one way or another." Luca said. "We all have a breaking point, and sparring helps us edge closer to it, especially when it's a fight against someone you're already at odds with." She explained.

"But they severely needed the training… I'm sorry if it offends you, but… they haven't fared for themselves in their lives, and it shows. Maybe it's because our worlds are radically different, but it's necessary for them to learn that you aren't going to be there forever. I guess this whole experience and whatever is headed our way is going to be that much needed wake-up call." The Riolu's explanation was sad, but true.

Even with a grim face, both adults nodded to his words. It's never easy but it was true. A few hours later, after they'd all calmed down, picked up the books on the floor, gone for a swim and they reached an agreement that they wouldn't hide any more secrets of that caliber, they all lounged for a bit in the room, since Eric and Elly still had to wait for that phone call to come. They were sitting together on the edge of the bed, the Riolu having an arm wrapped around her shoulders. "You alright? You freaked out real bad."

She only answered by edging closer to him at first, but eventually found her voice. "Yeah, I'm feeling better… It's just that everything came back at the same time and…" She sighed. "I hate it so much… even after all that happened he still intimidates me." He patted her back, trying to comfort her.

"You know, even book characters have fans." Luca said out of the blue, if only to have something to talk about. "You could be considered a huge fan… of yourself." She says to Eric, with a smirk.

"That's a fairly good idea… let's hope that we don't raise too many eyebrows though, last thing we want is to call someone's attention." And as he said that, the phone rang loudly, everyone facing in that direction immediately.

"Don't worry, everyone would think you just tatooed your paw with that."

The smaller blue furred creature nodded and jumped off the bed. "Yeah, that could be a good excuse. Though I'm more worried about our names and things… Hold on a sec." He grabbed the receiver. "Serge. is that you?"

* * *

( **Lazy Afternoons - Kingdom Hearts II.5 ReMIX)**

"Who else do you think it could be?" The Pidgeot answered from the other end of the phone, leaning back against the call booth as he held the phone in place against his head with his neck. "We're in the bus station waitin' on our ride… time flew by fast, sun's already going down, though we had a blast. Wait 'till you hear what happened to us, or what happened to Jake too… Oh man you guys are gonna laugh your asses off, an-"

"Serge, just get to the point! We gotta tell 'em about that Pete guy!" Nox shouted from behind him, his voice coming out through the receiver end, even if the flying type tried to cover it.

"Hush up! I was just getting to that part!"

" _What Pete guy? What's he talking about?_ " Their leader's inquiries could be heard by all five of them, even with all the noise that the busses and the people outside were making. " _And what the hell is all that noise? Is that the people waiting for the buses?_ "

"Yeah, there's a huge mob out here, probably an accident or somethin'... Ok, anyways, here's the deal! Dude, we found out that we exist in this world, get this... " He took a long breath to reveal it…

" _In a book. Yeah. We figured it out on our end as well. Also, watch out for something called 'cosplayers', because they might be going around looking like us, so don't get confused._ " Everyone's eyes went wide open at the mention of the books and of course, the cosplayers.

"Wow… Alright then, there goes that reveal right out the fucking window… and how'd you know about the cosplayers? Cuz we found one that was dressed up as **Blake** , of all pokémon!"

" _ **Blake?!**_ " There was a sudden startled shout from the background, followed by Eric swearing and explaining what he had just been told to Elly. They heard a muffled ' _Ah… well that's tasteful… Who the hell would dress up as Blake?!'_ , which only made everyone in the station chuckle or giggle.

"Apparently the guy was in love with Blake's 'charisma', and how he swayed his way through the hearts of the pokémon that listened to him… plus he said that his looks were kickass." He let that phrase hang there in the air for a bit. "End quote. That was about what he said… If you ask me, he was an idiot."

"Well that's not nice." Zed chimed in, not agreeing with that statement.

"Dude, you fucking dealt with Blake and you know what that bastard did, don't tell me that SOB's got an excuse for going around dressed up as a goddamn psychopath."

" _Ok ok, enough with the swearing… he didn't exactly get to deal with him head on like we did, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt._ "

"You know what's rich though? Guy was part of the police department, and we almost jumped on him the instant he came into the room, with like… five or six policemen looking at us." Nox remembered that tense moment… and everyone present glared daggers at him, and even Serge looked at him and rose a wing, as if attempting to slap the back of his head. "Oh… wasn't supposed to say that… right."

The long and exasperated sigh that came from the receiver could be heard by all. " _Please tell me you didn't…_ " They said no, and Eric clapped his paws together. " _Arceus, count our blessings_ _ **you actually have a brain and his name isn't Jake**_ _. Absolutely incredible._ " Everyone looked at the phone, then at the Sneasel eating ice cream with his "Get Smoked" cap, protecting his from the harsh twilight, who looked back at them and shrugged. " _Alright… just get back here as soon as possible and we'll talk further… And please, don't do anything like… crash the bus or something._ "

"Ok, no bus crashing, got it! Is hijacking the thing acceptable though?" The groan of annoyance that Serge's comment won them made everyone laugh, and the Riolu hung up immediately to avoid any further jokes to reach his ears. "Awww man, what a buzzkill. I've been building up jokes all morning and he shuts me down like this, what pain in the A." He tossed the phone and it somehow fell in it's rightful spot.

"He's probably tired of your shenanigans at this point Serge. Who knows, maybe we'll be having roasted Pidgeot tonight after all!" Lucy teased as the Pidgeot came out of the cabin.

"Ah, shut your trap Lucy before I stick in another sausage or that white sauce you seemed to love oh so much." His comment confused Zed, amused Nox, angered Lucy and annoyed Jake, making the Sneasel facepalm.

"God you're the woooooooorrrrrrssst."

"What's he talking about, Lucy?"

"Nothing to worry about Zed… just let it die." The blush on her cheeks said it all… but Zed was still legitimately confused.

"You better believe I'm telling that story this afternoon on the show." Serge suddenly spoke up, and everyone looked at him confused. "What, you guys didn't hear? They're making a fireworks show tonight, but before that they have this like, stand up comedy skit, and I signed up for it! It even has a microphone with a translator!"

"Wait, and you're going to tell **everyone** in the hotel what happened this morning?! **Like hell you are!** " Lucy pounced him and proceeded to shock him once more, but even after Nox and Jake had to grab the irate Shinx and separate her from the flying type, the latter was undeterred.

"If anything, your reactions only make me tell the story more! Hah! In your face!"

"No you aren't! Come back so I can fry your brain, bird brain!"

"Redundancy, Lucy…" Jake pointed out, but Lucy just turned to face him.

"I don't give a shit about your redundncy, I just want to fry his ass into next friday! Now let me have at 'im!" She was trying her absolute hardest to break from their grips, and it was working to a slight extent, which eventually got Serge to think that maybe it wasn't the best idea to poke fun at her about that.

"Alright alright, fine I won't tell that story… Actually, I'll talk about a story from my childhood! How's that?" Her struggles stopped immediately, and all his friends gazed at him in disbelief.

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah! I've got just the story too… Let's hope it's a hit like I think it'll be… anyways, how much longer until the bus gets here?" He quickly changed the conversation topic so they didn't ask any further. Jake checked the timetable for their ride and looked at the clock hanging at the very top of the station. He checked them once, then twice, then thrice, then looked at the busses that were currently there.

"Now!" He jolted up from his spot and headed towards the bus that read their destination, and everyone else quickly caught on and took off behind him. Thankfully, in that bus station you had to buy the tickets in the entrance booth before you could even go into the waiting area. They reached the bus just as the doors were closing, and Serge jammed his beak inside to keep it from closing, making the bus driver shout and open the door quickly. Once the slight discomfort was gone, Serge gave him the ticket, the rest followed suit.

"Damn... that was close. Eric would've had our heads for sure this time…" The flying type really didn't want to think about what could've happened had they missed the bus back home, and instead just sat down in one of three empty seats, resting his back against the wall. Nox jumped up and did the same, and next was Jake who jumped to the next seat and then helped Zed and Lucy up. Jake sat between Serge and Zed, who had no complaints, because the Sneasel's cool temperature did wonders against the warmth in the bus, and Lucy just laid her head on Zed's shoulder.

"Whelp… that was an exciting day…" Zed sniffed the air and winced. "Ugh, even here it smells horrible. What'd they say it was? Carbon something?"

"Carbon dioxide, the smoke that cars emit, the residue made by the combustion engines used in most, if not all cars out there. The atmosphere is filled with it, hence the foul smells in the city. It also contributes to the **dreaded** greenhouse effect, which is provoked b-"

"Oh yeah, that thing that makes the earth hotter, right? I heard it on TV! They said it's a myth!" Lucy finished the Sneasel's explanation before it even began, leaving the Sneasel with a single finger up and an open mouth. He slowly closed it and looked forward.

"In short… yes. But I do believe it exists. The temperature in this world is dreadful. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to be an ice type and live in this wretched world…"

"Probably sucks. But hey, count your blessings, we most likely won't be staying in this world for too long, so let's just enjoy it while it lasts, ok?" Serge patted the Sneasel's back, almost knocking him off the seat, then quickly apologized as he earned himself a glare.

Nox chuckled, but then something came to his mind. "Wait a sec… You saying that just made me realize something: Sooner or later, we're all gonna be going back to our world, right?" They all nodded. "Well... what about Emily? She and Dust are together now. Is she gonna come back with us, or is she gonna stay?" The silence that befell them after that simple question meant that they had no idea what they would do… or say.

"I think…" Zed was the first one to speak up. "The safest thing we can do is just not say anything yet, or at least tell Dust, and discuss it with Emily and what she wants to do, and then have her tell him her decision. We may be the ones who brought her here, but I don't think we should speak for either of them." Once again, the Zorua had been the most sensible out of everyone in the group… though Eric and Elly still had to comment on the matter, but until then they had an extremely boring bus ride.

"Screw this, I'm gonna catch some Zs… we've been doing nothing but run around town. My claws are busted… God I hate asphalt so much." They all agreed, as it was a lot more different than anything they'd ever walked on. With that last comment, they all got comfortable in the positions they had: Serge was in the very middle, to his right, was Nox, resting his head on his side and sleeping with his mouth hanging open, much like the Pidgeot, whose beak was wide open and snoring. Jake slept softly on his right, leaning on him slightly, and Zed was leaning on Jake, something the ice type didn't mind, and finally Lucy was on her back and her head on Zed's extremely fluffy tail, using it as some sort of pillow.

* * *

The day has been far from calm with everything that had happened that morning, but at least the afternoon promised to make it up to Luca and Hadrim as that morning had been quite noisy. With all that happened with the Team Star members that went out on an expedition of their own to the nearby city and everything it brought up, aside from Eric and Elly finding the book of their lives. After that, while Eric was talking with Serge, everyone came back from the pools and decided to watch tv or play some board games to pass the afternoon.

After lunch, they all went to their business, some went to enjoy the pools, others stayed at the room. Hadrim and Luca decided to go out. The couple were strolling down a street full of shops, it was like a market street, yet they weren't interested in buying anything, just looking around for interesting things. The Lucario commenting on a few things and even asking her mate what he thought of a few armbands she found. He joked a bit about it, earning some gentle taps on the head from her, yet they both shared a little laugh.

After a little while he did the same with a white scarf that he found he liked, she told him it was maybe too white for him, but otherwise it looked good on him. Even then, they didn't buy anything.

"You know… We hadn't had a gesture of kindness with Team Star in all this time, What you say we get them something?" She asked.

"You sure? I don't think they're ones to accept a lot of gifts." He said to herr

"Well, we don't know when they might decide to go back home, and I think that now is as good a moment as any."

The Espeon stood thinking about it for a moment. ' _It wouldn't be that bad, right? It won't hurt to get them a little thing._ ' He thought. "Well… Sounds like a good idea to me." He says to her. "I bet you already have something in mind for some of them?"

"Actually, just for Elly. And Jake maybe." Luca said as they kept walking. After a little while they stumbled upon a notion store. Luca went inside and picked up some haberdashery, like a set of knitting needles and a few balls of yarn of different colours. She didn't spend that much Poké but made sure the quality was good and that the needles would last long.

She knew what the Eevee had said about she getting the needles and yarn herself, but the Lucario couldn't help it, since when the Eevee had showed interest in knitting she thought it might be a good idea to get them for her as a present. Even as she came out of the store and back with her mate she couldn't help but smile warmly. "Someone seems to have grown fond of our guests." Hadrim teased.

"As if you haven't! I've heard how you scold Nox sometimes as if he was Dust or Radius." She giggled, teasing back and he laughed slightly.

"If only he'll listen to me when I do."

With that, both adults kept their walk. They didn't know what they could take to the others and thinking about it. Maybe a stylo for Serge since he likes writing, perhaps a book for Jake… Those were just some of their ideas to get to Team Star, but there were some that they didn't know what they could get them. Deciding that they'll try to find out somehow when they were back.

* * *

At the hotel room, Dust was drying himself after having a shower and think on what he wanted to do. He had wanted to take Emily out for a picnic but he didn't know were she would like to go, and asking her was out of the question since he wanted to surprise her in some way. As he went out of the washroom, he looked at the Eevee, enjoying a bit of chatting with Natalie, pawing at the younger Eevee's new gem in her forehead. Hadrim had explained why she had gotten it, she was almost ready to evolve as she was developing psychic powers. They even speculated about the reason for this being the time she spent with Elly's body. But whatever was the reason for her developing them was not important.

The shiny Riolu decided to try and get the info he needed by asking Team Star about her. They were all getting ready for the evening, and hopefully this time without having two complete strangers breaking into the room, although just to prevent anything from happening and much to basically everyone's dismay, they closed the windows, albeit the AC was on full blast.

Dust decided to ask Lucy and Elly, so he went to them, hoping not to bother them much. "Hey! Can I ask you something?" He said to them.

Elly and Lucy looked at him, as they were ready to go and waiting on their mates, who wouldn't stop messing around with the cologne. They exchanged a confused glance and Lucy turned to him first. "Uuuh… sure?"

"I was wondering… You see I'd like to take Em to a picnic, but… I don't know where she'd like to go. And I want to surprise her. So, do you know what kind of place she might like? If she'd rather go to the countryside or to the beach?" He asked them and waited for their answer.

They both looked at eachother, even more confused. "Weee… uuh… Don't really know her that much, really, so we don't know." The bigger Eevee turned to face the aforementioned pokémon. "She came with us by completely accident, so we didn't know her before that… that being said, she lived with us in Treasure Town, so she might feel more at home on the beach."

Hearing this, his ears went down slightly. "Oh… I see." He says looking at Em as well, biting his lower lip a bit thinking. "I think I'll take the chance." He said nodding. "Thank you both." He said and let them to themselves. The yellow Riolu would have to look for a nice spot for them where no one would bother them, so maybe he'll have to make that moment wait a bit more to find that spot first. Before he went away however Elly patted his back.

"Hey, cheer up. I'm sure the two of you will do just fine… you love her, and she loves you back. It's easy to see that." The sound of snickering came from Lucy, who was looking away and staring at the mirror, probably checking herself out. "So as long as you're there with her, I'm sure she'll enjoy herself thoroughly, alright?" She couldn't say or do anything else, but she thought cheering him would be the best next thing.

He sighed a bit and looked at her. "Thanks, Ell. That's reassuring." He said with a smile and getting the freedom of cutting her name slightly shorter. As he left to go prepare himself for the show, Elly looked at Lucy, confused.

"Ell?" Her question made her friend giggle.

"Hey, it's funny, admit it!"

"Yeah, sure, as good of a nickname as Lulu." She chuckled at her own joke, but her face quickly went serious. "Why'd you snicker when I said that?" Her friend turned to look at her, raising an eyebrow. "When I said that it was easy to see how dearly they held eachother in their hearts."

Lucy shrugged. "I wasn't paying attention to the conversation by then, sorry… you know I'm horrible with romantic advice, so I was checking myself out… and I swear this ribbon makes me look adorable… What do you think?" She posed for her friend, and even though Elly's smile eventually returned to her face, it took a solid two seconds. That giggle had really unsettled her.

A few minutes later all of them were outside the room, and Serge was waiting for them… and looking dapper. "Well color me surprised, Serge actually dressed up fancy for once!" Eric's comment was well deserved: Serge had combed the feathers on his head so they looked like a very nice kind of mane, and had a black bowtie on his chest. How they had gotten it there was anybody's guess, but Jake theorized that it might've had something to do with pins.

"What? I need to look perfect for the show tonight… I'm gonna be putting up as best of a performance as I can… though this is the first time I've ever done this."

"What? And here I thought you were a scholar that had studied and read the entirety of _De Vulgari Eloquentia._ " Jake teased, and Serge rose a wing to try and flip him off in his own way.

"I know latin, so fuck you for that one." His quick response earned a collective chuckle from everyone, and the gesture also earned Serge a quick wing cramp, about the which he complained the entire way down to the restaurant. Once dinner was out of the way, they all headed for the outdoors bar area, where tables and chairs had been rearranged and moved in order to fit a massive stage where the tech crew was wrapping up the smaller details, like spotlights. A blue ampharos was overseeing the whole thing with a note clip in his hands, pointing at things that weren't right and throwing a hissy fit whenever he noticed something out of place.

"Well, I hope she isn't the one that's arranging the shows, because otherwise…" Serge grabbed his bowtie anxiously, not wanting to deal with someone who looked like a perfectionist. Besides the tables there was a timetable with the types of shows they were hosting that night: the first batch was oriented towards kids and younger audiences, with harmless comedy shorts and plays, as well as a magic show, and the last part was more oriented towards adults, and in the middle was the stand-up comedy routine that Serge had signed up for. All of the participants were guests from the hotel who thought they had something funny to say or tell, so Serge was hopeful his segment wouldn't be the worst of the night.

"Woah! Look at those Pokémon!" The voice of a human kid came to them. The group turned to look at the source just to see two little human kids, a boy and a gilr, run eagerly towards them and look at them, mostly at Team Star.

"They're big!" The girl said as she extended a hand to pet Elly.

"And so cool too. Look how strong this Riolu looks!" The boy says, daring to press on Eric's arm to check the muscles, the Riolu lifting his arms as they tried to check him out. As the two kids kept fanboying over Team Star, the Kaiser just looked at them smiling. They even chuckled when the two kids asked Serge for a ride, the Pidgeot looking away and making as if the children didn't exist, and slowly but gently pushing one of them away as they tried to get on him.

"Oh don't be a grumpy cat, Jake. The petting won't melt you." Luna said to the ice type with a smirk., but he still ducked away from the humans, not wanting those childish hands on his fur at all.

Dark took notice of Zed hiding away from the kids and he just smiled, creating an illusion over the shiny Zorua to make him completely invisible for the moment. After that the two kids approached the Kaiser Pokémon, Luca all the glad to let them check her within limits, Hadrim not minding some petting, Radius keeping his fur smooth and wagging his tail. Everyone stood calmly allowing the kids to do their thing as long as they didn't got too excited. Luna on her part backed away from them, ears and tail low, the girl made her blush when she called her cute.

The two kids would've kept up with the petting and everything if not for another voice, belonging to a Mienshao calling them. The two kids turned and went to the Pokémon, calling him daddy as he picked them up and sat them on either shoulder. Apologizing if the kids bothered too much before turning and leaving, moment Dark broke the illusion, hoping that no one noticed and it would've been a perfect try.

As those two human children left the scene, everyone in the group was confused, albeit some more than others. Jake, for example, was flabbergasted at what just happened, while Serge was used to it, since other humans and pokémon had approached him before to check on his wounds. Finally, it was Lucy who spoke up first. "Well… that was weird."

"Are they gone?" The fluffy dark type snuck out from behind his mate, and they all nodded.

"That was definitely the strangest experience so far… getting pet by other humans." Eric shivered, he hasn't exactly enjoyed it, but it wasn't unpleasant either. Elly, on the other paw, had enjoyed it to a certain degree.

"Ah, I think it was ok."

Lucy rolled her eyes, putting her fur back in it's rightful place. "You know what I'm surprised about? That they actually tried to pet Jake. I mean, who the heck would try a pokémon with a face like that?" She joked, but the Sneasel glared at the electric type.

"If only they could see your heart, they might very well cower in fear and disgust." The comment earned him mixed reactions: some, if not all, interpreted it as a joke, while Elly looked at him with wide open eyes. He didn't pronounce anything else about the matter, because Lucy was quick to retaliate.

"Well, if they got to see yours I'm afraid they'd see one made out of ice or stone." There was an awkward silence in the air, and no one said anything for a long while until they were all called to sit down, as the show was about to begin. They did so, and ten minutes later the lights dimmed down as the spotlights turned on as the blue Ampharos greeted the public and explained the acts they would be hosting that night, confirming the Pidgeot's fears and making him groan.

After that short introduction, the show proper started: first the magician act, presented by a Mr. Mime with a top hat and a Mime Jr. as his assistant, after that a small play interpreted by cubs which made everyone laugh, mainly because of how much they struggled to play their part, but it was still fun nonetheless, of much better quality than one might have expected, and finally a "sing-together" act, where they sung main themes from popular TV shows for kids, most of which Nox had watched and many of the Team Star members recognized because of it, so they joined in for some of the songs.

"This is actually turning out to be much more fun than I imagined! Let's see how you top this, Serge!" The Riolu shouted over their enthusiastic clapping as the show came to an end.

"Pffft… This is beginner level stuff! My comedy doesn't come close to this…"

"In the fact that it's way inferior I suppose." Zed chimed in from behind.

"Yeah, of c- Oi!" The Pidgeot turned to face the offender, who chuckled for the reaction alongside the others. "Oh, I'm going to make your face red as a tomato from up there Zed! The stories I'm about to share with you guys will make even Nox blush!"

"Not that it's hard to do so in the first place… just show him the underside of a paw and he's already looking like his cheri berry." This time it was Lucy who spoke up, and everyone laughed like crazy while the Houndour faked being offended.

"Paws are cute, ok?! And besides, I'm still young… and you're all way older and have mates!" Once again, her was victimizing himself.

"You do realize that I am in the same situation, right?" Jake's point just made them laugh harder. Serge patted the Sneasel's back affectionately as he said this, and the ice type moved away from his attempts to make him cheer up.

"Hey, how about we make a bet between ourselves? Let's bet on who will get the juice first." He stood up and away from the table, coughing to make his voice deeper. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first annual 'Get the Juice' competition! In the left corner we have the Sneasel of Ice, the calculating tactician and the guy who probably wants to cut me up into itty bitty chunks with his claws right now…" They all laughed at this joke, even Jake, who had been pulling out his claws up until that moment. "...Jaaaake! And in the right corner, at just about the same age, but with a thirst for the opposite gender that seems unquenchable, a head that's hotter than the sun and fire hot enough to roast me for dinner… Nooooox!" The fire type rolled his eyes and found himself unable to keep a straight face. "And now, we shall bet… who of these two wonderful participants shall get the juice first, and what will we given and taken?!" He quickly scurried over to Eric and placed his wing in front of his face, as if he were holding a microphone.

The Riolu smirked and mimicked grabbing one, then looked at Jake. "Ok, look, I love you from a partner point of view, you're reliable, you're intelligent and to be honest, you can be really fun at times… but I gotta call you out here: you have as much sex appeal as a rock." The ovation and howling that followed the tease were deafening, and people were already turning to face them because of all the noise they were making. "So, surprisingly enough I'm better off putting my money on Nox this time around, because I think he's got enough drive to do it." Nox cheered and Jake simply nodded with a frown as if saying 'We shall see'.

Elly was next. "You know, normally I'd agree with my mate on basically everything… but I believe in you Jake! You're intelligent and when you get through that shell, you're pleasant to be around! And besides, who wouldn't want to have an ice type for a partner with this heat?" Everyone laughed.

"Now that I hadn't thought of! You gotta get your priorities straight people!" Serge shouted as if he were commentating a football match.

"Damn right! With these temperatures I'd prefer a walking AC machine to a heater any day of the week, so… sorry Nox!"

"Bah, we'll see what tune you're singing later on this year!" After Elly's declaration it was Zed's turn, and it took him quite a while before he decided.

"I think… I'm going to agree with Elly: our fur protects us from the cold, but when it comes to heat… yeah I'm taking Jake as well."

"Pfft… you're both gonna lose!" Lucy shouted from the other end of the table, and Serge quickly scurried over to her, keeping up the act. "For all the shit that I throw at Nox, he's probably going to get laid with some female who's desperate enough… Meanwhile, Jake's probably going to become an actual forty year old virgin, that I assure you all."

"Ohohoho! That's a bald statement right there, what a Lucy thing to say!" The Shinx couldn't tell if she should feel insulted or flattered by the Pidgeot's comments, so she just stayed silent as he got back to his chair. "Well, the votes are in people, and we have a tie! Hmmm… guess it's up to me to break it up! Now… I may be a little bit biased, buuut… Kiddo? You've totally got my blessing: go get 'em tiger!" Nox nodded and patted his chest and pointed at Serge, who repeated the motion, making everyone laugh.

"So then, let's recap… three of us say me, and the other two say Jake… Wow, that is a really unexpected result… Jake got way more votes than I thought he would." The others chuckled, and Serge just shooks his wings.

"Come on man, don't be like that, that's too much."

"Oh no, please, keep going… the more you talk and insult me, the more satisfying it shall be when I win the bet and force you to do something." The Sneasel's sudden change in tone made 'Team Nox' look at him, while Elly and Zed looked at eachother and smirked.

"Oooh, this is gonna be fun… Well, from this moment onward, the bet is on! The first of you two to get laid first and bring proof of it will be the winner, and will be free to force the lose to do anything they want!" Serge threw his wing down and motioned for Jake and Nox to shake paws or claws. They did so, exchanging a few choice words.

"This is will, bar none, the most satisfying thing I've done."

"Yeah right… you're going down, Ice."

"...Stop calling me that, please."

"It's nice to see you guys so relaxed for once and the first time." Came Dust's voice from the other table they have taken, right besides Team Star's. They all turned to face the Kaisers, noticing that they were either straight up laughing or chuckling.

"Well, it's not like you've seen us all joking around and not being distracted by bullcrap… But we actually get along much better than we let on." Lucy said, voicing everyone's thoughts.

"You know what? Next time, some of you guys should partake in the monthly 'Snake Talk'." The mention of 'Snake Talk' rose eyebrows, opened mouths and made every male but Jake lunge for the Pidgeot who had let that slip through his beak.

"Oh my god we're **not** talking about 'Snake Talk' here. We're not. We walked in on you guys doing that once, and that was more than enough for a **lifetime**." Elly sentenced, both she and Lucy shivering while the males chuckled.

"What does he mean with that?" It was Natalie who asked this, letting her curiosity get to her head a bit, more so seeing how the two females reacted, and for some reason that same reaction made her have a guess.

"Oh you do **not** want to know what 'Snake Talk' is, trust us… You're still innocent, so cherish it." Lucy responded while giggling like mad.

"You do realize she might have a one year body but the mind of an adolescent, right?" Dark chuckles a bit for the electric feline's comment on his sister's innocence.

"Trust me, the things we talk would probably scar your parents!" Eric rolled his eyes at the Pidgeot's comment, hinting at the fact that he was probably exagerating.

" **You** would be the one surprised with what's there on the Galvanet if my guess is right." The Eevee of the onyx gem was the one to answer this.

"Oooooh, I didn't know you would be interested in that sort of stuff, Natalie! Dark, did you know this side of your sister?" The more mature show was starting while they were having this discussion, Nox being the one to point out the implications of Natalie's statement.

"She's old enough to know what she browses and how she… plays games." The Zoroark says.

"And to top it all: I'm one year older than Mister Trickstar here" With an ear she points at her brother, who rolls his eyes in annoyance to the nickname.

"Technically we are the same age."

"Yeah right. **Now** we are less than one year old. How convenient, Trickstar." She keeps on, earning another growl from her brother and a laugh from Radius this time for all the teasing.

"I'm never gonna live that down, am I?" His annoyance only got him laughs from everyone.

"Sorry bro, but you're stuck to it." Radius said. "You just need the star on your eye and all settled for an Illusion show!"

Dark flipped the other the middle claw. "Oh! Fuck you!"

"Serge! Stop rubbing off on our cubs!" Luca joked seeing this action a bit as she tried to hold back a little giggling fit. Serge simply shrugged, saying that he couldn't help it if they were growing up.

"Wait… what was that about you being less than a year old?" The question came from the leader of their team, who had focused on that snippet of information after it had been dropped like that. "You mean that Dark and Natalie are in younger bodies than those of their human selves?"

The memories set both Korel Siblings' faces ablaze to the point that they could even see Dark blushing under his dark fur, but it was Luca who answered. "You see, when a human is cursed like this, the transformation sort of restarts the body's age. I remember the first three months when we all had to bottle feed them since they didn't even have their fangs fully grown. That never grows old and surely never will be less cute!" She squealed by the end of her last statement.

"Luca! Please!" Natalie whined as the Lucario said this, using her ears and tail to hid her face and Dark had simply vanished in place, while Serge was moving his right wing about as if he were writing all of this down.

"Now this… this is some gold. You know, I've got two things on you right now Dark, so you better do what I tell you kiddo!"

"Two things?" Eric asked, and Elly facepawed the moment the Pidgeot said that they were two things, not one, though he quickly corrected himself and Eric dismissed it as a mistake in the heat of the moment.

"Their mind age, also their real age, is fifteen for Dark and sixteen for Nat." Shade shared as well, which only fueled more both siblings shame for whatever reason it was, Natalie deciding that she'd rather be teased about liking Radius than her time as a newborn kit.

"Oh, that we knew, but we didn't know that they were so young… huh. Wait, that means that they can't watch Serge's show!" Immediately he came up with a way to tease the twins further.

"That also means we should be in bed at seven in the afternoon, but have you ever seen us do that?" Natalie commented, slowly coming out of her shame.

"Well I mean, I'd rather have you two sleeping instead of sneaking out to make out with your girlfriend slash boyfriend…" The flying type couldn't help but remind them of that one occasion, which Eric didn't quite understand, but Elly couldn't help but chuckle.

"Please, don't get in there with me." The youngest Eevee said to him with a smile yet being serious about it.

"What? I'm just stating the facts here."

"Well, who's to say you haven't gone to a certain other bird that got the hots for you?" Luna tried to turn the conversation and get it away from where it was going before the party was spoiled.

"Hah, jokes on you, because I admit that I go get my dick wet every once in awhile… not in the past few months because of these wings… but I'm making progress!"

"At least I take pride that I don't go around hitting on the first nice ass I see as if I was a desperate sex crazed dickbrain."

"Oooook please let's all come down, because this is going to get crazy…" The blue eyed Eevee quickly intervened and stopped that train of discussion, albeit everyone else was feeling really awkward or giggling like crazy.

As if on cue, a human waitress came to their tables and asked them if they'd like something to drink. This empathized more the point of stopping talking for a moment, thus being an opportunity to change the topic. The Kaiser asked for some juices, a soda, a beer and a glass of wine and then she turned and asked the same to the other group. Once the order was placed she went away.

"So… What are you gonna do to try and entertain everybody in here, Serge?" Radius asked this to the bird, being curious about what to expect from him.

"Well… there's a reason why I said that these two kiddos…" He waved his wing in the direction of Dark and Natalie. "Their young minds aren't ready for what I am going to share with you today… and speaking of that." The late night show had begun, and there weren't any kids or cubs present, only adults that were quietly laughing at the jokes from the comedian on the stage. "I think I should be getting ready for my own act."

"I don't want to have you distracted with mental images of what I use to play sometimes so I'll save it for later and decide for myself." Nat said with a smirk. She hadn't seen any of Team Star get near a computer since they arrived so she even doubted they knew how it worked to begin with… except Jake probably.

"I doubt it… but oh well, I'm gonna get going… look forward to seeing me on the stage!" He got up and waved goodbye as he walked away, making his way to the stage. Nox slid his chair over to Natalie.

"Except that one time you forgot to erase the Galvanet history… "Tentacruel x Glaceon", huh?" The smirk on the Houndour's face was so big that it hurt slightly.

"Remind me to check your Nexus account when we get back." This came from Dust. "You know, to clean it a bit." He added afterwards with a smirk.

"First of, screw the both of you. Second, since when do you know how to use a computer, let alone a Galvanet browser?" The second was directed towards the dark and fire type. "You weren't spying on me, were you?" She accused, looking at the Houndour and standing on her chair.

"Nah, I just asked Jake how to use it… I'm not even going to joke about that because I know Dark would have my head… but seriously, you're into some interesting stuff." He left it that, chuckling to himself.

"Even then you can browse your own thing instead of getting into my research." She says, blushing slightly at the prospect of getting caught… a blush made much harder and much more noticeable once she noticed Dust whispering something to Radius who was looking at her with a surprised face. It took all her willpower not to pounce on the Shiny Riolu to shut him up and some convincing that he wasn't telling the Jolteon **that**.

The others were talking about their own things, or just enjoying the volunteers on stage using their 'Time of Glory', as this part of the show was called, with either monologues, a karaoke with the which some were good, others nice, and others would make anyone want to be deaf. There was one that, while singing a song, had a voice crack; and more volunteers did more things. "You think Serge's gonna be the last one? Or that he decided to not come out?" Hadrim asked since it has been a while since they had their drinks and some where about to finish them and Serge was still to come onto the stage.

Nobody knew the answer to that, so they shrugged, and eventually, Serge's name was called to the stage, the Pidgeot coming out a few seconds later, fixing his bowtie and hair while from behind the stage one could see the Ampharos' tail quickly scurrying away. It was an instant, but some of the more observant pokémon in the two tables caught it… and could get an idea of what he had been doing before the show. As he finally got ready and reached the centre, he grabbed the microphone and coughed, checking that it was working.

"Ok, this thing is working… alright, so good evening people! Name's Serge, a Pidgeot who is totally unrelated to the one from the book. You know the one, right?" Everyone but his friends nodded, since they all knew the truth. "I come from Kanto, if you weren't able to tell by my accent, and… I gotta say… We don't have nearly enough erotic novels there." There were a few short chuckles and giggles, while he was already establishing the mood for the next few minutes. "I, for one, was one of the first to write erotic fiction, and I don't get why people are so keen on throwing a hissy fit about it! It's just a normal part of romance, so what's wrong with that? Or at least that's what I thought until I came over here…" He leaned closer to the edge of the stage.

"So… anyone here read 'Fifty Shade of Ditto'?" The immediate response was either groaning, laughing or chuckling, and he took it all in stride. "Yeah, I know, never in my life have I felt more awkward of my own biology." The laughter that roared after that quirp was deafening. "I mean, ok I can take the use of "Snake" or "Throbbing mass" when referring to our male pride… but god damn seriously, who the hell uses the words "Cream dispenser" or "baby maker"?! Like, who the hell gets turned on by that stuff?!"

Since there weren't any young pokémon present, he could just go all out, but not say anything explicit… so he just had to play his cards right and wouldn't get kicked off the stage. "If there's something that any respectful writer should do is progress with their writing. When you're young, you have a style, and the older you get, the more experiences you have, the more vocabulary you get and the more your style matures. I'll use myself as an example: when I was young, like, in my teens, I wrote about teenagers and their romantic struggles! Now? I write stories about adults with romantic problems. The difference lies in that, back then the most erotic thing they'd do would be kissing on the lips, and now… well, let's just say that I'd make mister Ditto blush." Another round of laughter followed, but he wasn't quite done yet. "But hey, if it helps you, at least it isn't as bad as what's going on in your parents' bedroom. **Heyo!** " The public was laughing alright as he kept on pacing back and forth and posing with that last exclamation.

"Anyways… point is, you gotta improve, and that's something that the writer of that book didn't do. You gotta use the experiences from your personal life to make your writing realistic… and considering my experiences, there's a lot to draw from that. See, remember how I said I come from Kanto? I come from a really secluded town, super traditional, but a quaint and curious place to be for vacation unless you are addicted to the Galvanet, which, **by the way** , I think is going to make me go out of business… but that's a topic for another day. Point is, the earlier half of my childhood I spent in this really quiet and calm rural village that was essentially isolated from the world… until a few years ago, when we started opening up and allowed the influence of the outside world in, and… for all you old school pokémon and humans like me, this is going to sound familiar: the revolution."

Some hums of agreement and understanding were heard. "The world suddenly opens up as rules become more lax than ever, you get easier access to things like alcohol and other stuff… and if it catches you when you're in your teens, like it did to me… Arceus help you if you aren't gonna take advantage of it." He looks up, smiling. "It was a simpler time: you could stay up past your bedtime, hang out with your friends, smoke, drink, kiss a male or a female, or both… nobody would care! You could do whatever you wanted. And I have to say, it was the happiest time of my life, and when I met my first girlfriend." Some groans were heard as they thought he was going back to the former topic. "Now now, don't worry, this isn't about my first time mating, that's a story for a different day… but I gotta say, my girlfriend? Sexiest Dragonair in town. She had so many curves to grab and feel…" Some chuckles were heard from those who caught on to the joke, Serge knowing that he was winning back the public.

"So yeah, back then you could do whatever you wanted, mate with whoever, drink whatever… it was completely acceptable, asides from those older pokémon who just couldn't accept the idea of their eldest kid kissing another male for the heck of it. Though it made for some amazing reactions." He bent forward and his beak touched the floor from how low it fell, mimicking the faces those pokémon made. "For those that don't know what I'm talking about, I recommend 'The Xatu of Suburbia', insightful book and really funny… And now what do we have? You can ring up an escort on the phone if you're feeling desperate, but most, if not all just contempt themselves by going into Galvanet and looking up 'Tentacruel X Glaceon'."

Hearing this, Natalie just groaned a bit. "Do any of you think that some Pidgeot's feathers would look good on me?" She asked, actually thinking on taking off all of those feathers one by one.

"That'll teach you to make sure everything is closed next time." Dust again going further with the tease.

"At least I haven't had to walk around shaved bald." And that was her only attack to the shiny Riolu.

"Hey I wanna listen!" Said Luna asking them to shut up. They audience was laughing at his constant jokes at youngsters nowadays and their ingenuity.

"And finally, the one thing that I find so ridiculous and absurd is just the speed that they want it to happen! It's like think that cliches like "You have beautiful eyes", or "Your tails look absolutely wonderful today" isn't going to score you any points… it's just going to score you a kick to the bottom, and that's something nobody wants." Another round of laughter followed this joke, but he was already running out of ideas, so the show was coming to an end.

He got someone there to laugh that he surely wanted to hear at this mention, Luna couldn't help but let out a laughing fit, having been the target of **a lot** of males that tried to start a conversation with those kind of phrases. She had come up with a few ways to take them off her tail, each one funnier for her than the previous.

"So, what did we learn today? One, you gotta make sure your writing is realistic by putting your personal experiences in there, two, make sure that if you use Galvanet, you clear the browser history and clean up when you're done, and third: just be a little more lax people, it's part of our daily lives, and if you have a friend who's being a pain, just tell them to get laid! Trust me, it helps." He bowed and the audience clapped and cheered for him as he got down from the stage and walked over to his friends.

"Got the public on your wing there, eh Serge?" Said Radius as the bird came back to the table.

"A show a bit spicy for my tastes, but fun all the same. You made even Luna laugh." Added Hadrim. To this two followed the rest of the Kaiser commenting on the avian's monologue.

"Ugh… you don't have to laugh. That was absolutely horrible." He said, sitting down in his spot. "I had it in the first half, that I'll give, but I just lost my train of thought in the second part, and it shows." He let out a long sigh. "Man, I didn't even get to tell that story I wanted… Oh well, live and learn." He grabbed his glass and drank the rest of

"Good thing you didn't force it, tho. It could've been worse." Dark said.

"Serge, for any casual are you very found of your feathers?" Natalie asked, her tone calm, but her eyes showed that she meant no good with that question, at least for him.

"Uuuuh… If you want to make a pillow I can give you some, I've got a bit too many… And besides, you'd amazed how **hot** these things are, like imagine wearing a coat twenty four seven. That's what it feels." The rest of his friends laughed as they all sat back and relaxed and enjoyed the rest of evening.

* * *

Once the 'Time of Glory' show was done, the blue Ampharos that directed the show went back on stage and announced now the fireworks show, and also introduced someone else, an old human dressed in what looked to be traditional regional clothes. The old man had green eyes, still conserved his grayish hair, and had a nicely tended beard that Dani commented he'd like to have, yet Clara said that she'd shave him herself before letting her husband have that beard. After this the stage opened behind him to the pool of the hotel. Slowly, the man walked backwards until he stepped on the water, staying afloat somehow. The man didn't even took the microphone, he had one with an earplug on his ear that was almost invisible. After the man stepped on the water he started sliding over it. This made some of the audience stand from their seats in surprise. The kids were allowed into the show again to see this last part of it.

While the man was sliding over the water, a few fireworks were shot, their whistling calling the attention of everyone that followed them up until the first few explosions went off, filling the starry night sky with red, green, yellow and white. The fireworks expanding into big spheres of flames. Beneath, the old man was also looking upwards towards the sky. After a bit more, out came two big ones, one golden, the other white. Upon explosion, the flames of the golden firework formed the silhouette of Arceus, while the white one's formed an unknown shape.

"Is that… a Dragon?" Dark asked out loud seeing the shape. Strangely, both shapes stood in formation, the flames not dying as the rest of their companions in the air. Then the light exploded into the pool. Surrounding the old man to call the attention over him with blazing columns.

"Long ago. Even before humanity or the Pokémon that we have come to know today. There was a kind that shared traits of both. This kind was bipedal but had a lot of animalistic and Pokémon traits. They had wings and fur, and their faces were more animalistic. This kind could harness all powers known of the pokémon, and lived in peace in this world." The old man told them, as he walked around over the water around the flames.

"However. there was one of this kind. One that was able to harness all of them, from being able to control water, fire, ground and thunder, to time and space themselves." He said, the speakers booming his voice clearly over the exploding fireworks that fuelled the flaming shapes in the sky. "This one being became crazy with all the power it possessed, and started to kill its own kind. Until there was none of them anymore. Our lord, Arceus saw this, and decided to punish this being. So he showed up to it." More fireworks shot up, illuminating more the skies and the flaming shape moved on their own. It was as if there was some kind of magic within the story the old man was telling that made the shapes move as the old man told the story.

"The creature, on it's most powerful form, defied our God. Both of them got into a big battle that shook the land around them, right at the peak of The Inaccessible, back when this archipelago was a mountain range instead. The battle lasted for two days and both combatants were terribly wounded. However, our God gathered all his power in one last attack, that he launched against his enemy.." One big firework shot up as others kept on exploding, and fuelling the shapes. The new big one went across Arceus' shape and then exploded in a special manner, all the flames went in the same direction, joining again in one and then falling across the other creature. "This attack ended the creature's life for good, thus preventing it from destroying the very land we now stand on." As the old man said this, the shape of the unknown beast diminished until it was just a ball of flames.

"In order to avoid this happening again, Arceus separated the traits that formed this kind, thus creating both humans and Pokémon to live and care for this world until the end of time. And he went back to the Hall of Origins, to rest and recover from the fight, as life progressed once again." And with those last words, the fire in the sky died and the final fireworks were launched, clearing the smoke shapes from the skies as the man went back to the stand, bowed and went away.

Some of the audience was still surprised by this spectacle. Some asking how did those fireworks could move as if they were real beings, and how could the old man just slide over the water's surface as if nothing. Everyone thought it was just magic.

* * *

The fireworks were beautiful indeed when one saw them from the ground, but the blond haired child sitting at the edge of the rooftops thought they looked much better from his position. Of course, they wouldn't have been this beautiful hadn't it been for the intervention of those psychic pokémon near the lake… still, his blood boiled because of the shapes and the story those pyrotechnics told. Still, he hadn't come there to enjoy the fireworks in the first place, and neither was he on that rooftop to get a better look at them.

"Does all of that count as propaganda?" A voice besides him asked, and the child turned around to face a tall man hiding in the shadow the stairwell shed cast. He could see a faint source of light near his mouth, smoke coming from it. "Because I haven't seen more bullshit together than that one time I followed the Tauros pack back to their turf… and lemme tell ya, that was a lot of shit." The man walked out from the shadows, showing that he had purple hair and gray eyes, smirking.

The child looked forward again. "Took you long enough to show up… what took you so long?"

"I had to make sure your siblings didn't find me snooping around… they're pretty excited to have found those two all on their own. A bit too excited might I add, they won't go down without a fight." The man responded and sat down near the edge with the kid, taking a long breath of his tobacco before blowing it out. "Wouldn't want them to be hurt, now would we?"

The small boy stayed silent while the man chuckled, looking at the fireworks firing off for a bit before he took another breath, then halfway through it he stopped, blew smoke and handed the cigarette to the child, who merely glared at him. "Why do you insist on committing suicide in the slowest and most painful manner possible, Adam?"

The man rolled his eyes and smirked, taking in a little bit more and ending up with a bad cough. "I dunno… I guess I'm trying to appear more human? Then again…" As he coughed his transformation reverted and his true Mewtwo form showed, hitting his chest with a fist until the cough went away. "It's not like that's ever gonna happen while Dailos is around, right?"

The child looked down at the ground again, more specifically, and the Kaiser family and Team Star. "What do you want?"

"Oh come on, is that how you greet an old friend, Dom?"

"If by that you mean a traitor, then sure, this is the way I treat those types of pokémon… and humans." Adam groaned and threw his cigar away.

"Meh, think what you want… You know exactly why I did it Dom, I'm not about to say I'm sorry for doing the right thing…"

"Betraying your friends and family? How's that the right thing to do? Because you sided with the winning side that immediately makes you just? Wake up, Adam: Dailos is slowly going mad, this has happened before, and this time he's fed up with humans, and I'm pretty sure Pokémon will be next if this keeps going."

"They might very well be… Not that it matters, I'm not here to talk about petty politics, Dom." He looked at the younger human. "How is she?"

Dominic however, just shrugged. "Don't know, and I doubt you'd care. You probably have a good idea of the state she's in right now, but you can't even bring yourself to go check on her yourself. Just as always, unable to pull your head out of your ass and notice that others can't keep up with your bombastic way of life." His words were like a knife that was slowly sinking into Adam's chest, and even though he wasn't showing it they were really hurting him. But he could wound as well.

"Well that's rich, coming from the one who didn't have the courage to convince his siblings of joining the 'Winning side', and can't even speak up for himself, let alone pick a side and face the consequences." Adam chuckled, taking a deep breath. "You're the spirit on knowledge alright, I'm telling you: just stay quiet like a little bitch and wait 'till it all blows over, but when you get the chance criticize whoever comes your way. I don't know if my way of living is bombastic, but it sure as hell is better than standing still like a rock." There was a certain cheerfulness in his voice, but also an underlying bitterness, which Dom simply couldn't ignore and looked away. "I don't know what's worse: the one who participates in a fight or the one who just stands still and let's it happen."

"I tried to convince them to n-"

"Oh, so I'm the one that's got his head in his ass now, am I? You're so far in you must just come out of your mouth and implode!" Adam shook his head. "You need to take a side, Dom, this isn't just a household argument that you can just wait until it blows off and then have the two arguing sides make up and kiss. This is a war, and it's going off right now behind the scenes, without any of these idiots knowing it." He pointed at the crowd beneath them. "It's only a matter of time before they're involved, and what then? Are you just gonna stand still and watch humanity be decimated, because let's be honest here, it's not like they stand a chance against us."

"Is that why you came here?!" Dom suddenly snapped. "To recruit me?! To lure me into Dailos' ring and make join my siblings?! Don't you realize that I've already considered that?! I love them, they're my family, but it wounds me that they took your side and now they're hunting down this world's only hope!"

"You say that as if Dailos' actions weren't justified… but I digress: I'm not here to talk about politics, neither am I here to recruit you or make you join a side. I'm here for three things: first of all, ask how she was, and you answered that question, trust me, second of all, lecture you, and I hope that what I told you went through your thick skull, and third… warn you."

"Warn me? About what?"

"Your siblings, of course. Or rather, make sure that you know where your allegiances lie and try to convince them of that. Trust me: there isn't a neutral side in this war, as much as you try to convince yourselves… already saw Leo and the guy helped them, and he said he was 'neutral'." Adam shook his head. "A civil war, this is what this is."

"But why do you want to warn my siblings? About what?"

"That they don't underestimate those guys… specially the Team Star blokes: strong as hell, sent me to the nursery for a couple days from how bad they messed me up… and I had to erase Adam's memories as well to save their butts."

"Wait… what?! But I thou-" Adam placed a finger on his lips.

"Atatatatata… Just let me do my thing. You know on what side of the fence I am, so don't worry about me. Instead worry about your siblings and make sure that you get through to them, because if you don't… can't guarantee they'll walk out of this one without a scratch. Ok?" He held his finger there until Dom nodded. "Ok." He lifted his finger.

"Why are you doing this?" The moment he could talk the young child asked that, giving Adam a grave look. The psychic type only gave him a look… and that single look told him everything he had to know. "But… that doesn't… You're putting everything at risk so you can take all the glory for yourself?"

Adam shrugged and got up, transforming back into a human. "Not really, but you could interpret it like that… I just don't want any more blood to be shed senselessly. I'll do anything I can on my end…" He looked back at Dom and patted his hair. "I hope you do the same. Good luck Dom, and I hope we can see eachother again at the end of this." He started to walk away and headed for the stairwell, opening the door again as Dom contemplated about the conversation they had just held… "Oh! One more thing!" Dom turned to look at Adam again. "I know it will hurt her more, and she will hate me… but honestly, I couldn't care less. Tell her that I still love her, and I'm doing this for her." Dom's eyes went wide open as he tried to stop him from leaving, but the disguised legendary simply shut the door and left Dom alone on that rooftop.

The young boy sighed as he transformed and reverted to his original form: Uxie. He looked over the edge again and looked at his siblings' objectives, leaving for their room as the fireworks show had come to a close, and he himself also considered going to sleep for the day… This were probably going to get rough soon. He teleported and disappeared from that rooftop, leaving only the hiding man with a darker purple hair and bright red eyes looking at the scene that had just transpired.

Dante walked out from behind his hiding spot and looked at the door Adam had left through, clutching his fist. "Adam…"

 _Why?_

* * *

 **Eric: Yaaay, things are finally getting dark again! Bet no one saw the reveal of them being a book coming… and Adam's back, and as confusing as ever! What could his true intentions beee?**

 **Ray: beats me honestly but he's talking about a she… someone special I'd say as well.**

 **Eric: Oh it's someone special, but it not may be the type of special you're thinking of… and trust us, next chapter we're back to our normal program!**

 **Ray: On another note there's a bit of local lore about Narel Archipelago, a Legend and some magic… Again this certain inaccessible island is named. Turns out it's some kind of tomb of a great evil or something like that. And talking about program… I hope I can still get some side time for… well you know, bro, not gonna spam here, that's just rude.**

 **Ray: Ok back to things: Both groups goofing around together again, that's something I've missed since the snowball fight. Poor Nat got the short end of the… tendril I'd say. -smirk-**

 **Eric: Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah this chapter's over. See ya guys tomorrw! *Tries to make sure his comment is ignored.***

 **Ray: oh you! Ah, whatever. We hope you enjoyed it guys and see ya next time. Byyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**


	18. Chapter 17 - Will to Feel

**Eric: First of all we have Hinebras. Glad to see you pointed out the obscure hints at some character development from both Serge and Nox… really excited to make them more than just comic relief. Though that probably won't be until much later, possible the next part. The book thing was just supposed to be a clever detail, but we decided to make it into a more relevant plot device, hence why it took so long to appear: this is the event that makes both groups equal in the aspect of them lying to eachother, and also served as a motivation for Eric and Hadrim to bury the hatchet about the Pursuer business.**

 **Eric: Heric is really important for both of their lives and their entire world, and in more ways than just what happened in AHR...**

 **Also, some clarification: Pete was bound to be an Espeon but ended up evolving into an Umbreon and coincidentaly had the same ring color as Blake, which just made him so excited to be like his "idol".**

 **Rayrudan: About Dust evolution, there's been a time since he doesn't have any of this… accidents with the stone hehe. And the explanation why he doesn't want to will come as soon as I get a room for a certain scene.**

 **Ray: "** _ **Want to know what a pokemon is made of? A battle. Mend a relationship? Some battling. A broken knee? Good old battle will do.**_ "

 **Are you being sarcastic here? Because then I don't get the joke. -glare- Luca already explained it on her dialog.**

 **Eric: (Stop the music) Ooops...**

 **Ray: Natalie and her evolution are explained in this chapter so I'll spare the double explanation.**

 **Eric: Emily is really hard to talk to, she just does whatever she wants and she might try to stop listening to the conversation… and besides, it's not in their hands/paws/claws to be meddling in other people's businesses. And let's just pretend Serge's got one, alright? That way the joke makes sense XD**

 **Ray: "** _ **The EricxJake is real.**_ " **#Hinebrasstopshipping!**

 **Eric: #Neverstopshippingitmakesmefeelwarmandhappy**

 **Eric: And Adam is just really fricking fun to write, I'm gonna come out clean here, like… holy shit. I'm having so much fun with him and developing his character.**

 **PS: Yeah, a new cover for AHR, drawn by my good friend Raven6229!**

 **Ray: the traditional robes of the man are more at the imagination of everyone, you can go with the usual Pokémon traditional clothes (Japanese I think) or imagin those of your own country to put various examples.**

 **Eric: And now we have West! Yeah, it was a cosplayer, what did you think? That Blake had come back from the grave with other intentions in a completely different and unrelated world? Pffft. And he looked like that because of the explanation I gave to Hinebras, and yeah, AHR is a book… and everything is there asides from a few minor details which make the difference.**

 **Ray: Actually cosplayer? … erm… Joining Eric's explanation to Hinebras it relates with ant as well, so the explanation is into the chapter.**

 **Eric: West… do you REALLY want to know that stuff? And yeah, snake talk, you know what's up! And that is a very valid point, that some people have a child's mind in an adult's brain… like a certain character from this group.**

 **It was hard to write, I swear, I struggled a lot, asked tons of people and just was unpleasant. Glad to hear it was worth it, but jeez, never doing it again .**

 **And the whooole situation with Adam and Dante will be cleared up shortly, same with this "she"... As I said, I am having loads of fun writing him, and as you said, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem… but what does Adam want exactly? It's still up in the air.**

 **Ray: For both Hinebras and West: Tentacruel X Glaceon… I just can say one thing: Tastes. As different as people life in this world.**

 **Admit it, who doesn't like a good session of that every now and then?**

 **Either way. I think that's all from the Reviews? Yeah that is so. Without more ado… Enjoy the chapter people!**

* * *

Chapter 17

Will to Feel

He was in the middle of a field, laying down calmly with a thread of wheat held by his smiling muzzle as he enjoyed the calm night breeze, humming a little song he liked. After a bit, the sound of pawsteps made his ears twitch and his nose flare up to identify the coming one, and the scent made him smile wider as he closed his eyes for a moment to then open them and find himself face to face with a silver eyed female Umbreon with grey fur and white rings. She sat over his head and looked at him with a smile he found precious. However, when she talked he couldn't hear her, yet he found that his own mouth moved in response and she seemed to giggle.

What happened next surprised him, yet his body acted as natural. The Umbreon send him a warm look, and then leant down to him, eyes closed and brushed her muzzle against his, licking his nose gently and then his lips. It felt somewhat weird but, not that bad at all, and his body answered, licking her nose and lips as well to then reach up to her head, his body ignored his surprise when he saw pitch black fur and white claws on his Zoroark's paw, his body held her head gently, and his leaned in, giving her a human style kiss on the muzzle. Being just one warm kiss at first, enjoying the sound of her and his purring, mixing together in what sounded like the song of bound and love.

All of a sudden he heard himself chuckle as he felt her turning the loving kiss into one more passionate as she slowly moved to be over him. When they parted he heard his own chuckles again but he didn't heard what he said, but shaw her shrugging and giggling as he could fellk her body on his and she offered him a sly smile, slight lust in her gaze, she leant down again, laying her chest on his and kissed him again with the same passion as the previous. He hugged her gently and caressed her back slowly feeling her trembling as he went lower and she shifted in place, getting quite the reaction from him. It didn't matter he couldn't hear their conversation, nor the fact that his fur was darker than usual and his claws were white instead of read, nor the fact that he couldn't feel his mane on his back. The only thing he cared to look at now was that precious Umbreon laying on him, he only wanted to keep feeling her warmth, the strong beating of her heart through her chest onto his. Her silk-like fur rubbing against his. He whimpered a bit as he felt her rising herself over him, yet she giggled and smirked at him, then winked and…

* * *

Dark woke up with a jump. His body soaked and he gasping as his heart raced because of the scare he just had. "Finally you woke up." He heard Hadrim's voice. The Zoroark looked at the Espeon and saw him letting down a now empty bucket that still had some water dripping. The Zoroark looked himself over. He had decided to sleep on one of the hammocks of the balcony of the hotel room, but he didn't expect to be waken up when the sky was just starting to go red because of dawn. "Wake up and dry of. I've got your breakfast ready." Said the Espeon once he saw the Zoroark slightly calmer.

Dark groaned slightly, sitting on the wet hammock, being impossible to go back to sleep now. "What was that for?" He asked with a still sleepy voice.

"I've been trying to wake you up for the last twenty minutes, yet you kept snoring like a log as if I wasn't even there." Answered the psychic type. "You are going to start training again, but this time I'll be watching. Now hurry up before the others finish all the breakfast." And with that, the Espeon went back inside after taking a moment to dry his paws on a towel he had brought for the dark fox.

After drying off, Dark went inside the room and sat on the couch, in front of a plate of sandwiches. Radius, Dust and Hadrim were also around the table, enjoying breakfast. It was too early for the hotel's restaurant programed breakfast so Hadrim made a few sandwiches with the bread and some lunchmeat they had bought the previous day. It was mostly for those times when they wanted a night snack and the restaurant was closed. Having an ice-box and some ice it was easy to keep it good. Dark picked up one and started to eat as well. Looking at the others. Radius yawned showing some chunks of food he was still munching before looking aside and swallowing. Dust was silent for once, his eyes half open as he ate half asleep. The only one that looked to be totally awake was Hadrim.

After their breakfast was done they were all mostly awake. They all went to the battlegrounds of the hotel and there, just to wake them up fully made them do some exercises. "You can stop." He said to them once he deemed them awake enough. The three young males stopped and looked at him. "You three are going to do a free for all today. I'll be only watching and making sure we don't break anything around." He said.

With that said, the other three looked at each other for a moment before taking differents corners of their battleground. It wasn't long before they started sparring. Their battle was something to look at. Every opening was used but he still saw some flaws on their battles, mostly on radius, who's lack of experience was still big and he wasn't getting thrown around because Dark and Dust were focusing more on each other. In the end, Hadrim stopped them with a shout and made them line in front of him as he stood.

"You three don't do it that bad." He said calmly to them, yet firm. "However, Dark and Dust. You two focus so much on each other that you forget there's another foe close that has no one stopping him from attacking the both of you at any moment." He scolds them, making both pokemon lower their looks and ears. "On another side, Radius. You've had a lot of times that you could have used shocked them both yet you stood there looking at them." He said and looked at Dark and Dust. "You two have to keep your eyes on the battleground and the other enemies, not only on the one you're fighting. It's true you have to keep your eyes on your actual rival to be able to dodge their attacks but you can't forget about keeping an eye on the others that might be around moving freely." He then looked at Radius. "And you have to take better advantage of the openings and the moments of freedom you had instead of staying still or running back into the mess." With that he looked at them all again. his face was serious. "Do it better this time." He added and they nodded, going back to the field. however, before they started he once again stopped them. "And Dark. I've seen you are not using all your resources. I want you to rely less on your aura for now and start using your ability." He said, leaving the Zoroark stunned. "Not buts, pup, you have to get used to using that ability more in battles and less in pranks and hiding yourself or others. Now get to it you three!" At his final bark the three young Pokémon went back to their sparring.

This time, Radius used his electricity when he saw himself free of the struggling. Shocking, Dark, Dust or both at the same time every time he had a moment to breath out of the struggling. This forced the other two to correct their focus and spare it between their two foes in this sparring. Dark actually used his illusions as best as he could, yet the first was a failure. he did manage to keep an image of himself visible, but it was motionless and didn't attack at anyone, and his invisibility flattered, so Dust didn't even need to use his aura sight to see the Zoroark moving, even Radius let the dark fox approach to him once just to then give him a shocking bite with Thunder fang that actually drew blood from the Zoroark's arm. Hadrim stood watching this sparring, seeing some flaws on their fighting but allowing them to continue. Only fighting seriously would they improve, but this didn't mean they have to fight as if it was a death or life situation, at least not this fight. He did see however, that the more the electric fox used his electricity and moved around the faster he became, allowing him to better dodge and counter whatever the other two threw at him. Dust was the one with most experience out of the three that was clear, but the Riolu was focusing on both foes and doing a fairly good job on defending himself and fighting back the other two. However, Dark was struggling, trying to fight using his illusions but whenever he managed to make one move and pretend it was fighting, his illusion of invisibility was even worse.

Even Radius could tell he had gotten very rusty after so long only using his ability for little things. Now he had to concentrate on more things than just the illusion, he had to make sure the others didn't saw him and keeping the illusion of himself on the fight to distract the others so he could land a hit. Dark was having a really hard time trying to do everything at the same time. Hadrim was watching everything. "Keep calm and focus." The Espeon advised while standing on the sidelines, walking around the field all the time to see the fight from all angles possible for him.

While they were training in that field, Team Star was in the one right next to them doing warming exercises: even with the rather cool morning air, they were out there doing their warm-up routine, the cold breeze only motivating them further. Serge and Zed, of course, were resting, albeit the Pidgeot was trying to move his wings around, and commented with the Zorua about the fact that his chest didn't really hurt anymore, so they'd check on that wound alter. Because of this, only the other five members were actually training: Eric doing pushups with one paw, probably showing off, Jake was doing the same but with two hands and the others, quadrupeds, were lapping around the field and doing stretches, and so far Nox was actually 'winning', in the sense that he was doing all of them the quickest, both because he was working really hard and also because Lucy and Elly were just chatting in a friendly manner as they did everything. Nox's dedication to his training satisfied Eric, but worried Serge: he was doing it to take his mind off of things, focusing on one thing only, which was to become stronger… but for what purpose?

After that quick round of training, the morning sun was finally in its normal position, and humans and pokémon alike were already flooding the outside areas: trainers were approaching the fighting fields already with their pokémon in their stead, probably hoping to catch a few fights here and there and get some exercise in, something that Eric thought wouldn't be that bad of an idea. "Y'know… we could all go for a couple of training fights today against these trainers." He said, pointing at the gathering mob, the rest of his team members minus Serge and Zed considering it.

"Can we really do that? I mean, it'd suck if we hurt any of these guys badly and we get kicked out of the hotel or something." The fire type walked up to the group as he said this, glistening sweat coating his fur, emanating so much heat that Elly simply had to edge away from him while Jake started sweating bullets.

"I mean, I don't think you'd have to fight them with how hot you're right now…" When she noticed the look on his face the Eevee was tempted to slap him across the face. "Get your head out of the gutter Nox!" This reaction was followed by some chuckling, and even Eric found it funny.

"Had me worried for a second there!" His mate glared daggers at him, but before she could speak she was interrupted by the sound of Lucy gagging. She had gotten a bit too close to Nox.

"I don't think the heat would do them in, but your smell? Phooey!" The Houndour looked away, annoyed.

"It's not like you smell of roses either!"

"We have all been training, and we have not eaten anything, so how about we wash this sweat off, then go to the restaurant to replenish our energy supplies, and after that follow Eric's plans?" Jake's suggestion resonated with everyone, and they all left for their room with high spirits, telling their intentions to the present members of the Kaiser family. Hadrim nodded to them.

"We had breakfast before going out of the room so we'll probably be here all morning." He said to the blue Riolu. Meanwhile, the other three kept at their sparring, which wasn't going any better. Dark kept struggling with his illusions, leaving himself very open and so the other two were giving him a beating, and the Zoroark was growing more and more frustrated as time went by. "Dark, calm down! Frustration will only make you act harshly. Don't let it get to you." The Espeon said to the Zoroark, who was standing up from having been downed, Radius and Dust concentrated more on each other as Hadrim approached him. "You've got a lot of resources, but you forget about using all of them. You have to take on account all your abilities and when to use them in a battle. Yet you've let aside your ability for creating illusion. It's one of your more useful tools and you have to master it." Had said calmly to him, while Dark growled for a moment before sighing and nodding, trying to go with the instructions.

Eric saw the Zoroark struggling and sighed, then ran after his friends to meet up with them in the elevator. An hour later they were all ready and came downstairs to the bottom floor to eat their breakfast, which they wolfed down in record time, since most of them were extremely hungry from their previous session, and once that was over with they returned to the outside section. The pool was packed to the brim with kids and pokémon of all types and sizes, so were the special pools for specific pokémon types, but surprisingly enough there were just as many, if not more people in the combat area.

As they went in and they could see through the protected areas that fights were going off around them, each of the six arenas having their own set of glass-like fences, which were incredibly sturdy because a massive Onix crashed into one of them and it only slightly trembled from the impact, and they also had their own announcers, who were roaring on and on about the exciting fights taking place that day, though barely audible over the screams and shouts the spectators were giving from the viewing stands.

"Alright… so how are we gonna do this? Are we all going to gang up on some poor fools and tear them a new one?" Nox said, moving his neck and getting himself ready for battle. Albeit the suggestion wasn't half bad, Eric shook his head, smiling.

"Don't you think that'd make it all way too easy? We're supposed to be training, Nox, not taking a walk through a flowery field." His comparison made everyone look at their leader curiously, waiting to hear his own twist on this extremely unusual training. "Instead, how about we take them all on? We go individually into an arena and see if we can manage. That oughta be a good enough challenge, right?"

This earned him mixed responses from his team members. "I mean… that could do it, I guess… but wouldn't it be unfair? We can take 'em on, but we're almost always working and fighting as a team, so why not do that?" Lucy's suggestion resonated with the rest, but he simply shook his head.

"Too easy. Any of the fighters here would probably crumble down and fall if we all stepped into the fray as a team, even with Zed and Serge out of commission like this."

Jake cleared his throat and called everyone's attention. "This is supposed to present some form of challenge, after all. Besides, there may be times when we find ourselves distanced from each other and unable to cooperate… we must find ways to hold our own and either defeat our opponents or last long enough for reinforcements to arrive. I suppose that will be today's challenge?" His suggestion was met by a nod from the Riolu, and now that everything was sufficiently explained all of them agreed on the idea.

"Alright… I'm going to finish my fight the fastest, just you wait! I'll be cheering you on from the stands before you know it!" Nox started boasting and earned himself a laugh from Serge.

"Don't burn out too fast kiddo! And besides, we don't wanna send someone to the center on critical condition… just singe them a bit, make 'em hurt, cry… that sort of stuff. Deal?" Serge held out a wing, and Nox smiled and hit it, as if they were brofisting.

"So, it's decided then?" Elly asked one last time to make sure, and everyone agreed. They all put their paws, claws and wings together and cheered before leaving for their respective arenas, readying themselves for the upcoming fights.

Meanwhile, Hadrim, Dark, Dust and Radius kept on their field, even if the Espeon had heard some humans or other Pokémon complaining to one of the responsibles of the area about them hogging up the field for themselves for hours, yet they weren't called out so their training continued. "Behind you!" Dust called, his eyes closed, and Radius turned quickly, his tail turning silver as he parried an invisible blow and then immediately shocked the area. Dark's illusion of himself that was the diversion shattered, as well as the invisibility over him as he grunted and backed away from the Jolteon, who just smirked. After literally since the crack of dawn training on them, the Zoroark was already taking a hold of the control of his illusory powers, yet he still had to find a damned way to blind Dust's aura eye, but he couldn't think about anything to do that. And Radius didn't let him think as he tackled the Zoroark down while Dust ran with an aura bone ready to strike. The dark type fox kicked off the electric type one and then rolled out of the way of the jackal's attack, quickly smashing a shadow claw on the yellow furred Pokémon, who blocked with his Bone rush, but he didn't expect that the Zoroark summoned a shadow ball behind his defense to blow him away. The explosion of the ghostly sphere smashed Dust against one of the psychic glass like walls that protected the fields back first. Dark heard Radius electricity crackling by his side and the Jolteon launched his attack. The Zoroark tried to duck but the volt hit him and shocked him to the ground.

The Jolteon took the opportunity to slam head first into the dark fox, who couldn't do anything else than to take the blow, yet he took the closeness to open a scratch on the eeveelution's face with his claws, Radius letting out a bark of pain as he backed away. When he overcame it, he looked around, only to find that Dark was nowhere to be seen, at all.

All the time, Hadrim was looking over the fight, not giving more advices, only looking the battle unfold, his face calm yet serious as his focus was on them and walking around the field. Unknown to them, the rest of the Kaiser, even Ichiro, had gotten there as well and were watching them. At least until one of the organizators of the battles, a human, came and gently told them to leave the field free for the battlers and that they could use it again once the matches were done. Hadrim nodded and the four got to the sidelines but they didn't go to the stands, instead they stood down to watch the matches and probably get challenged, or so hoped the Espeon.

The next rounds were about to begin, and all of the members took their spots at the entrance, having talked with the administrators and arranged the conditions for combat, raising a few eyebrows when all but Jake requested they go up against a full team of opponents and not just a one on one. The Sneasel entered his battle arena, engulfed by the cheering and shouting of the humans and pokémon around him, although he didn't recognize any familiar faces, even if they were there, he was too focused on his target. He seemed to have been put up against an Infernape, who waved at the audience with a smile on his face.

"Yeaaaah, that's more like it!"

"In the first corner we have, this morning's champion, Lange the Infernape! He has fought alongside his team all morning, but it seems like he's willing to participate in a one on one fight! The expectations are high, and his team members are cheering from the sidelines as well!" The announcer wasn't lying, as he could hear pokémon calling the fire type's name. "And in the other corner we have a newcomer, Jake the Sneasel! No trainer, no owner, he seems to be a pokémon fresh out of the wilderness, but beware those sly eyes!" He glared at the human from the corner of his eye, not exactly ok with him pointing out those facts like that.

The Infernape though, was amused and laughed. "Hey, calm down man! You gotta lighten up a little! This is just a friendly fight, so let's keep it clean!" He readied his stance, putting a foot in front of another. Jake didn't move at first, but sighed and nodded in response, still not uttering a single word and readied his stance, standing straight and at attention. The announcer's voice boomed above the voices of the spectators and started counting down from three… The instant he finished the countdown the Infernape dashed forward, trying to get the jump on Jake. But the Sneasel was three steps ahead of him. He swayed to the right and dodged his initial punch, then ducked under the follow-up kick. He was off balance, and had overextended, and Jake capitalized by hitting his leg with an ice coated kick, threw him to the ground and pounced on his chest. He blocked the visceral fire swipe he tried to throw out and then pointed his claws directly at his neck.

The moment people realized what was happening the entirety of the arena fell silent, and the Infernape was unable to move further: any movement outside of breathing would cause those claws to go straight into his jugular and rip his throat out. "Ah… What the f-" He pressed his claws further in, brushing his skin. "Alright alright, I give up! I forfeit!" He shouted it loud and clear, enough for everyone to hear him, and with that the sirens blared and announced the end of the fight, the Sneasel's claws going back into his arms and getting off of his opponent. The crowd was in shock, and even the announcer was at a loss for words.

"I… I'm not sure what just happened! But… Jake the Sneasel wins by forfeit of the opponent!" There was an ovation for the ice type, but the crowd was flabbergasted at the length of the actual fight itself. He turned around and headed for the arena's exit, though not before stopping and turning his head slightly.

"Work on your balance." With that he left the arena and left to watch the rest of his companions fight. Their fights hadn't even started and his was already done, his teammates turning to face his arena when they heard the announcer call the match in his favour. Eric was the one who saw the Sneasel join the ranks of the spectators, giving him a thumbs up, then turning to face his opponents.

There was a trainer who's turn didn't seem to come just yet. He was sitting on the lower benches. Black hair spiked up with hair gel, golden eyes focused on the unfolding fights. He had dark skin coloration. He was wearing short trousers down to his knees with some patches purposely broken and a few zips here and there, both to close actual pockets and to pretend there were more in places there wasn't; white sandals and a blue and white t-shirt that had a dark blue spot pattern, as if paint had been sprinkled on it. He had been impressed with the fight that had been so quick to be over just a moment before, but there were other battles to look at. His team was sleeping so he had them in their pokeballs.

Eric entered the arena and watched the trainer carefully, staring at the pokeballs around his belt, quite upset that he treated his fighters like that: just some tools he used to win fights. He glanced at the other arenas, and noticed that Nox was already fighting, flames spewing everywhere and obstructing the view, but the crowd was roaring with excitement, and Lucy and Elly were yet to begin with their respective fights, talking with their opponents. He turned to face the trainer again and opened his arms, challenging him. "What? Aren't you going to bring out your tools? Or is a human finally going to step forward and challenge a pokémon? Gotten tired of standing behind them and using them to fight in your name?" Because of the translators installed in the field, everyone could understand what Eric just said, and there were some laughs, some serious glances and even some groans and jeering towards the Riolu.

His rival just looked at him and rose an eyebrow. "For your information, they are taking a nap. Didn't thought you'd had such a big mouth." The guy said back, clearly annoyed, to be thought of as one of **those** trainers. Leaving his backpack on the bench behind him he stood on the trainer square and was about to reach for one of the Pokeballs but all six of them opened on their own as his team came out. "Uh… Let me correct that. They were taking a nap." the human added as he looked at them all. Eric frowned, then smiled, watching at the lineup in front of him.

"Alright people, we've got quite a one sided match today! In this corner we have the five day long champion of this hotel's arena battles, and holder of not one, or two or even six, but the whole **eight** badges of the Narel League, and possible candidate for champion… Azay Hernandez, and his team, Rocky Rhyperior, Alex Steelix, Storm Tyranitar, Volteer Electivire, Jason Salamence and Cid Garchomp. And in the other corner we have the Blue Devil, a lone fighter who goes by the name of Eric the Riolu! That's right folks, like in the books! He's got the disguise down to a tee with that tattoo of his! He definitely looks the part, but can he walk the walk? Especially against a full team of six pokémon?!"

"Why wouldn't he? He looks pretty strong after all." The human said with a smile. "Oh this is going to be exciting! May the best one win, Eric!" The human said, giving a fist pump towards Eric as he said the last words keeping a big, confident and excited smile on his face. The Riolu was confused at first, but only nodded and gave him a thumbs up, if anything out of respect. This would be an interesting fight… and he wasn't going to hold back at all.

After the pleasantries, the human looked at his Pokémon and at the unspoken question, Volteer stepped forwards into the field, ready to fight.

"Both competitors seem ready to start this show, folks! So without further ado…"

"Three."

"Two."

"One…"

" **Let's get it on!** " With the shout Eric dashed forward and jumped towards him, making a large leap towards the Electrivire, then landed in front of him and slid across the dirt until he was right underneath his arms, dodging the bolt attack and the swipe with the which he tried to defend. He unleashed a barrage of punches to his lower belly and ended with a visceral uppercut and release of aura from his right fist, launching him sky high and then jumped and kicked the electric type in midair, blasting the charge from his left foot, and then landed and cartwheeled away, while his opponent was left on the floor. The Riolu stood back up and returned to his normal stance in front of the stunned audience, then breathed in and let the aura from the environment flow in, restoring his aura and taunting the rest of the fighters with his paw.

"What… How did he do that?! Did he use his aura to boost his opponent in a direction? I've never seen anyone do something like that!" The announcer's exclamations could barely be heard above the shouts of cheering of the crowd. "This little guy might very well be packing quite a mean punch!"

Seeing this, from their rival, Azay thought for a moment, his face one of concentration. Electivire rose up again but he was stumbling to stay up. "Volteer retreat. Wanna give this guy a try, Storm?" The human said, The electric type getting out of the field, allowing the Tyranitar to step forwards.

"Sure thing!" He said as he got ready to fight while the human went to his previous Pokémon to check on him, he was mostly fine, just a moment of recover, but he was out of the fight.

 **(Here We Go - Anarchy Reigns)**

The trainer was as surprised as everyone. The dark and rock type stepping forwards made the ground tremble slightly. "Be careful with him, Storm." The human said, wary all of a sudden and serious. "Throw him off!" The Tyranitar concentrated, jumped and upon landing the entire field shook violently with an earthquake intended to throw Eric off his feet, following by the big Pokémon running at him, ready to slam into the smaller with a Giga impact.

The hit threw him off his balance, but the moment he charged in Eric turned around and ran in the opposite direction and against the wall. As he caught up the Riolu ran up the glass for a few steps before kicking off, and once in midair he summoned his light staff and slammed the end of his staff straight into the Tyranitar's head, then jumping off and recovering quickly.

Azay kept his eyes on Eric all the time, he shouted at the Tyranitar to dodge it, but it was too slow to get out of the way in time, mostly because of how close they were. The rock type backed off after that hit, and knelt down. He called the rock and dark type back and looked at the rest of his pokemon once again. This time they took longer to decide. Yet the excited smile returned to the boy and was even bigger if it could as he checked on his defeated friend, mostly his head.

"That was a pretty hard hit." The referee words resounded on the guy's head. "Who will Azay send out to battle now?" At that question, Cid did exactly that, stepping forwards into the field. No words from the Garchomp nor from his trainer, he just stepped forwards and readied himself to battle. "This is turning out to be better than we expected!" The boy exclaimed after laughing a bit.

The dragon Pokémon was a few times faster than the previous two, and he had a look of determination as he dashed towards Eric, his claws burning with greenish fire as he used Dragon Claw. Jumping back and going back into stance after struggling for a few seconds. His trainer wasn't taking the eyes off of them, watching them struggle. Concentration back into his face and the smile gone once more.

"Would you see that, Ladies and Gentlemen? Seems like Cid wants revenge on his defeated teammates. Looks like this battle might actually be interesting!" The referee said, calling the attention of even other trainers on other battles into this, and of most of the spectators. Eric simply smirked and readied for the Garchomp's attack, knowing that from there on out things were only going to get better. Cid had the same smile, he planned to make his turn last longer and test this little jackal's strength, aside from that he was just as excited as his trainer with this match.

Meanwhile, in the arena right next to his Nox's fires were still raging, even though the Houndour was almost through with the opposing team. They had all ganged up him, but the Houndour had divided the team with his flames and taken care of them one by one while the others tried to fight against the flames. With only three opponents remaining, he lunged for a Zangoose through the flames, surprising them and quickly came down with both of his claws, which were coated in fire. He attacked relentlessly, with both his front and back legs, and finished them off by double kicking them against the glass, too tired to keep up fighting.

"How'd you like that, sucker?!" His cheers were interrupted by both of the remaining two pokémon jumping through the flames and charging him. The Empoleon put its flippers together and hit Nox's head with a wave of water, then Aegislash shield bashed Nox against the far wall. He recovered quickly, staggering a bit, but charged in with a smile, determined to finish the fight with one move.

He blasted the Aegislash's shield with a constant stream of fire, the flames spewing everywhere besides and on top of it, cutting off their escape routes and the intense heat making the shield heat up to the point he had to release it. It was then when Nox charged up, his whole body coated in flames as he became a bright red flaming Houndour and charged into and past the duo, leaving the fire behind as he slid on the ground and posed, the fireball impacting them and blowing them sky high and knocking them out completely. The crowd completely lost it when he posed with an eye closed and his tongue sticking out. "Proud of ya, kiddo!" Serge's words reached him, even with that massive mess.

Zed heard the words of encouragement and smiled, then turned to face Lucy's fight only to see the glass being hit by an intense thunderbolt that left a red hot mark on it for a few seconds. She was going up against a single pokémon, a Gengar, his other two companions, an Excadrill and an Aggron having been knocked out seconds into the fight because of their metallic armor serving as an excellent conductor for her electricity. However, the ghost type was proving to be an annoyance, as he kept becoming intangible whenever she tried to hit him.

"Stop that already so I can hit you, damn it!" With a howl she let her anger take hold and dashed into him, but he avoided it by becoming transparent, letting the Shinx go through him and smash into the wall, making the audience hold their breaths as the Gengar readied a Sucker Punch to finish her off. She had predicted he would do just that, and right as she phased through the ghost she jumped and spun around, landing with her feet on the wall and then bounced off into his back, biting down on his back and delivering a nasty shock, to then rebound off him and nail him with a thunderbolt, ending the fight with a stylish finisher that even Zed couldn't help but cheer for, shouting just as loudly.

"You guys sure like to be stylish, huh?" Luna commented to Zed and Serge having seen how Nox and and Lucy had ended their matches.

"Definitely… Oh, there's Elly! What the hell's sh-" He was cut off at the sight of a Lopunny, a Marowak, a Torkoal and a Dragonair being smashed against a glass wall while the Eevee herself was fencing with her psychic swords against a Escavalier, struggling against the lance wielding pokémon for a bit before pushing herself through his defenses and smashing him with one more psychic blast, then grabbed the Cubone's bone and proceeded to deliver a beatdown to the armor wearing pokémon, hitting him from all directions as the bone flew around and finally smashed him like a baseball bat, forcing him to join his partners as she breathed a sigh of relief. She looked roughed up, having had some problems with that fight, but she was looking very optimistic, looking at her friends with a smile.

On the other side of the field, Cid burst out of the ground, trying to slash at Eric as he came out, the Garchomp was panting and neglected Azay's calls to retreat, until the human desisted and let him fight and aided him, warning him about Eric attacking from blind spots for the dragon, which was one of the reasons why this fight was lasting longer than with the first two. Eric was slightly annoyed that the human was offering support, but at the same time, he was surprised that he was involving himself in the fight. He gripped his staff and swung and Cid, meeting with his arm blades and entering a struggle. "Why do you fight for this human?! You're really strong, so why do you let him swing you around like a trophy on his belt?!"

Cid growled he put more strength into the struggle. "You don't know Azay." He said. "Contrary to what I think you believe, if not for him I wouldn't even be what you see." He said. "He's helped me become stronger, with his training or just being there as any friend would. You saw him call Volteer and Storm to retreat, others would have made them fight until they faint. And surely would have just recalled them into their Pokeballs instead of checking if they were badly hurt." By this point, the Garchomp was pushing with all his might into the struggling, as if trying to break the struggle and Eric's defense and strike him. "And to top it all, he's only telling me where you are. He's letting me fight on my own." He finished, smiling.

Eric found himself struggling against the Garchomp… but wasn't going to be beaten by someone like him. "So you're telling me he actually treats you well? If that's the case then…" He pushed back and jumped with all his might, breaching his defenses and spinning around in the air, striking with his staff three times before landing, holding it backwards. "How come he carries you around in those cages?"

Cid fell to the floor with those hits, Azay almost jumping into the field but holding back as the Garchomp stood up again. Some blood coming out of his muzzle as he had biting his check on the inside. "You say that because we came out of them?" He asked and chuckled a bit. "You know that's prejudice, right?" He added as he wiped his mouth with an arm. "We go in if we want. For whatever reason. If we want to be alone, rest, take a nap or just feel lazy. Otherwise we walk by him. You can say we use them as our own portable rooms. The journey a trainer does tends to be dangerous, and it's always nice to have someone to talk to during trips that can last days between cities, won't you agree?"

Eric bit his lip, looking at him and remembering how they had come out of their pokeballs on their own. He spun his staff and crossed it behind his back, the staff disappearing and the aura spreading through his body. "Alright… let's pretend I buy that. Then why do you fight? Is it just a sport? Aren't you tired of being thrown into fights for no reason other than winning money or showing you're the best? Why do you fight?"

"Depends on the rival. Right now this is a friendly battle so it's a sport. Same with gym battles. And you can tell is a personal trial. We test our strength against others in sporting fights to see how much we have improved. While the Trainer tests their mind sharpness."

Eric bit his lip. "So then you fight for fun, is that it? To get better and better and win a competition? Or…" He rushed in and threw a punch and initiated another struggle. "Are there more reasons?"

"In this case, yes. There are others, like fighting to protect your friends. Either from violent Pokémon or form an organization that tries to take them away. Then there are the explorers, of course. All depends on what one wants to do for a living." Cid answered as he blocked for a moment with his arm blade before jumping back, breathing in and spewing a stream of greenish flames towards the fighting type.

"To protect your friends…" The Riolu clutched his fist, coming to the realization that maybe the pokémon of this world weren't so different after all… With renewed spirits, he charged into the flames, but they never even hit him. He threw a right punch and pushed the flames back with the aura blast, then a few more steps and kicked them with his right leg just as he was halfway to him, throwing them up and using them as cover so that Cid wouldn't see him as he leaped above the stream and came down with his left fist, releasing the aura and making him stumble, to then deliver a final kick that he put all his force into, hitting his chest and releasing his last burst of aura, sending him across the ground.

 **(Stop the music)**

Cid smashed back first into the wall before falling down to the floor on his side. After recovering a bit, he started to stand back up, panting and trembling, tired after the battle. If the other had been able to send him across the field with that kick, he couldn't imagine what would've had happened if he had decided to hit him with that white aura staff of his. Eric walked over to the Garchomp, and Azay was about to intervene when he reached out with his paw… but instead of punching or doing anything he just held it there, offering help to the Garchomp with a smile. "I can respect someone who fights for the ones that they care about."

Cid chuckled and accepted the help. "Thanks. You're really strong. Are you an explorer or something?" He asked as he sat up and rose an arm to wave a signal to Azay, who announced forfeit at this, reached for his backpack and then ran to his friend. Starting to check him all over first, even the bite in the inner part of his mouth, most of the spectators gasped in surprise seeing that the boy had the balls to put his hand into the dragon's mouth, which made the Pokémon roll his eyes.

"Eeeeh, something like that." He looked up at the trainer as he checked out his wounds. Azay's face was full of concern, but then sighed seeing that his friend was mostly ok, and relaxed. Then he looked at Eric and offered a smile and offered a hand for a sporting shake.

"You fight great, Eric. We don't think we can beat you." He said. "Seems like you are the new hotel's champion."

"Thanks." He returned the handshake. "And… I don't know how to put this but… sorry about what I said before. We've had nothing but rotten experiences with trainers so far, and I jumped the gun. From what I've seen and what Cid said… you do seem like a good trainer. One in a million, but still." His mind had been opened to the different types of human trainers in that world, just how there were many types of pokémon back in their world.

"No hard feelings, dude." The human answered.

* * *

After the matches were done. Or at least, those that interested the Kaiser and Team Star, they decided to go enjoy the pools. Yet everyone that had participated on the battles or had spent all the morning training had to go back to the room and take a bath, or a second bath to take the dirt of the fields out of their fur and thus keep the pools clean. After Lucy had gotten cleaned up she walked up to Radius, cutting him off from going anywhere. "Soo… I heard you've gotten pretty fast, Radius." She dropped that sentence out of the blue, not saying much else.

The Jolteon was still to take a bath himself when she asked him this and he looked at her, ears going low and he getting somewhat nervous. "W-well… They say Jolteon is one of, if not the fastest Pokémon, but I don't think that I'm on that level, why?." He answered her, tilting his head to a side in curiosity at the end. She only edged closer to him, a smirk on her face.

"Want to race and put it to the test? Just a quick lap around the area, see just how much quicker you've gotten. But be warned, I won't hold back!" She happily announced this to everyone else as Eric came out of the shower, rubbing his head with a towel, Elly tailing behind him and using her psychic powers to rub said towel even harder when he tried to drop it, complaining that he was still soaked.

"I'm fine, it's not like I'm going to catch a cold like this!" He responded, then looked at the Shinx. "Also, are you sure that's such a good idea? You just got washed up, and now you're going to get a mess on your fur again?"

"I'm sure it won't be **that** bad… C'mon, what do you say, Rad?"

"Eh… Sure? why not?" He said. "Just… can I ask you one thing?" He added. He knew he didn't stand nearly any chance but at least he wanted one thing of her, and it was to play clean, both in the race and her mouth.

"Pffft… alright, fine, you wuss." She looked at the entrance of the room and crouched, motioning Elly to open the door with her psychic powers. She didn't do it at first, still too busy drying up the complaining Riolu, but eventually she turned her attention to her and cracked the door open. "Thanks. Now… get set…"

Rad crouched down, ready burst out of the door. He hoped that if she just dashed out she wouldn't get that much traction at the beginning. However, her plan was never to dash out, and as she called the beginning of the race she simply ran out of the room at normal speeds, lest she would've found herself with her front stuck inside a hole in the wall and a broken face, so instead she took it easy and immediately headed for the stairwell. Radius moved at the signal to start, taking an easy start as well in order to avoid his paws slipping on the floor and ending chin first on it as whenever he got too excited. The Jolteon also headed to the stairs, but in order to get some pretty seconds instead of running down them and risking end up rolling like a snowball down a hill, he opted for jumping down the steps of each portion, almost eating the wall the first few jumps down, then using it to change directions as he went down. Once both runners were down and out of the section of apartments their traction improved, allowing them both more speed, and the true race began.

"Aaaand off they go… Wow… they're… fast." Nox couldn't really say much as the two disappeared his view, and then reluctantly went into the bathroom to take his own bath, as much as he didn't want to for obvious reasons.

After getting clean, everyone reunited at the pools. Dust lost little time diving into the ice type's pool, something that always made the others shiver just thinking on how damn cold that water must be and yet he enjoyed it as if nothing. The rest however decided to enjoy the normal pools, even Luna, who didn't mind a bit of fresh water since that day was hot even for her.

After enjoying the pools for a bit, Natalie decided to go rest under the shade of the umbrella that was near the hammocks the family had picked up. The younger Eevee laid down at the shade of it, not bothering to shake herself dry, even if the water droplets tickled her skin, the fresh water felt good on her fur with the heat of the day. She could only imagine how Jake must be because of it after the time the matches his team wanted to have before calling it a 'hot day of being lazy at the pools', probably enjoying the cold pool as much as Dust had, or even more. The Riolu at the moment laying down with Emily, sharing Ichiro's hammock, the human boy having his own fun at the pool with Dark and Hadrim.

Seeing the Espeon getting physical was a sight to behold since he mostly, for games like this, preferred to use his psychic most of the time to taunt everyone with that they couldn't touch him. This time though, he was pushing and splashing. Natalie couldn't feel the waves his psychic emanated even if she tried now that she knew how to do it.

"It's rare to see Daddy going so close." Shade commented as she joined her lil' sister. The Shiny Eevee having noticed where the emerald eyed one was looking at.

"You bet. Haven't seen him like this in months. And honestly, it's good to see him goofing around like that."

"Daddy is very close to Ichi. It's been like that since I can remember. He's always the first one to stand by him when he has had a heart problem." The silver furred fox had a warm smile on her muzzle.

"Sounds like Ichiro is like his own kit."

Shade giggled. "You just nailed it, sis." Natalie looked at her. "The first time Ichi had one of his problems, Daddy heard the gym leader talking with Clara, and he immediately got the direction of the gym from the human's head and ran all the way to the other side of the island to get there. While Ichi was in the hospital, Daddy stood by his side all the time, even refused to leave him when the doctors said that visit time was over. Daddy cares a lot for Ichiro since he had seen him grow up with the dream of going out on a journey. But then the both of them saw all those dreams shattered…"

"Sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"Nevermind. I don't want to get down into that drama again. The point is, Daddy feels for Ichiro and how much he had gone through, and for him Ichi is one if his cubs as well as we are."

Natalie nodded and smiled, but then she noticed the tone of that we. "Wait, when you say 'we' you mean?"

"Of course silly! Aside from Radius and Dark who do you think was all the time with you that week you were so sick you couldn't even get out of bed? You and Dark are our siblings. No adoption papers nor nothing, just time." She smiled, and Natalie felt herself strange.

She felt like something had just been taken off of her, something she didn't even know she had weighing her down. The youngest Eevee smiled big and sat up, nuzzling the silver one. "Thank you for telling me that." She said and after a moment of doubting silence, she added. "Big sis." To the which Shade giggled.

"Woah now that feels good to be called big for once." She joked a bit, and both laughed.

"Honestly, you have been integrating yourself a lot, Natalie. Like… you said you were once a human, right?" Elly, who was sitting besides them and taking sips from her lemonade glass through a straw, joined into the conversation with that question. "Could've fooled me, because up to that moment there wasn't really too many things that made me suspicious. In fact, I honestly thought you two were sisters… albeit I thought Natalie was the oldest one."

"Well. It would be rude not to do that." The named said. "Yes. I was human, but neither me nor Dark know if we will be able to turn back, let alone go back home. And about my age… well, you now know about that."

"By the way Elly, any other Eevee that showed your psychic abilities in battle like you did at the matches would have been an Espeon by now. Those looked pretty strong." Shade praised the blue eyed normal type.

She merely rubbed the back of her head, hiding a blush. "Oh… I… I didn't do that much to them… and besides, I dislike using my psychic powers to the fullest. Mind controlling others and stuff like that I can never find the courage to do… It just feels wrong… But still, thanks for the compliment! I'm sure Natalie here will be just as powerful in no time if she trains those powers."

"Actually, I think Dad told me and Rad once that for Eevee and other no psychic user eeveelution, this powers come in a weaker version."

"You mean that this jewel doesn't determine my evolution?" Natalie asked.

"No. It only shows that you're tapping into psychic powers, you still have to be careful, with this heat you could become a Flareon, or if you take a dip at the ice type's pool come out a Glaceon." That was mostly a joke but it got the point across. "You'll keep the psychic abilities and you can develope them but they'll never be as strong as in Espeon or Umbreon. That's what I understood from Daddy when he explained it." The silver furred ended her explanation.

"Oooh, so that explains the Pete guy and the gem…" She shivered. "Had nightmares about that guy last night… it really is something that I'd rather forget. Anyways… so then you have to be careful right? Then don't get anywhere close to Nox, or Jake. If we need to gift you something, we'll give it to you during the day, just in case, and for the love of all that is holy don't get too close to Radius. If you get a bit close you could turn into a Jolteon, and if you get **too** close then Sylveon's the one for you." The smile on her face was quite big by the end of that sentence.

"Are you trying to pull out an eeveelution joke?" Nat asked with a smirk.

"Maybe? And don't go out either. Just… don't do anything. Just stay in and read as many books as possible, and then it'll probably happen." She couldn't hold back the laughter."

"Ok. I'll also make sure not to make any 'make out bets' least Lucy makes me kiss Nox or something."

"Yeah, that wouldn't be good… you aren't in risk of turning into a Sylveon with him though, that's only with Radius, for obvious reasons."

Nat blushed at this, and did it hard to the point that the tip of her ears felt burning. "H-hush!" She whined for that. Shade let out a little laugh while the other leant her head down. "Well… I… might like him…" Nat said after a few seconds of silence. Shade looked at her surprised for hearing her admitting it. "But…" Her tone of voice took whatever teasing the shiny had on her tongue to be swallowed back down into her tummy, and waited to see if her lil' sis said more.

"'But'? 'But' what? Com'on Nat, you can tell us." She tried to encourage the other.

"Yeah, we aren't going to laugh at you or tease you about it… I'm not Lucy." She stuck her tongue out and made a hissing noise. "Seriously though, she has the worst type of humor when it comes to this stuff… makes a girl wonder."

Natalie stood silent a bit more, then sighed, not liking this memory. "I had a mate until a year before all this happened. And he tried to take me away from my family." She said. "He managed to make me forget important dates or plans. Even if he lived with us. When I confronted him, the jerk beat me." She said, trying to keep an even voice as she said this, then looked at Elly. "Remember that day that guy at the ice-cream post that scared me so much?" She asked. "That human was like him. And because of that fucker I'm scared!" She said, her voice slowly cracking to whimpers. "I know Rad is not like that but… I can't help it!" She said, hiding her face as she tried to calm down and not break.

Shade just stood looking at her for a moment, not knowing what to say, her ears low as she gently nuzzled Nat, trying to comfort her, yet the shiny couldn't think anything to say to her sister. Elly patted the Eevee's back, trying to comfort her. "Calm down. We've all had our share of bad experiences… it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows with me and Eric either, we had a lot of bad moments, but… You said it yourself, Radius is nothing like that. You have to try and do like I did: move on from all of that and look forward to the future, and from what we can all tell, that future involves this Jolteon."

Natalie breathed deep as she heard those words from Elly and felt Shade comforting her, the onyx wearing Eevee closed her eyes as she rose her head, breathed in deep and then sighed, trying to relax and then opened her eyes. "Thank you both." She said with a smile. "You know? I've been thinking over this a bit. And found myself thinking on staying here." She said.

"Wait! Really!?" Shade almost squealed, hearing this, her happiness clear in her voice.

"I mean. We don't know if we will be able to go back, or turn back into humans. Asides from that, back home we are surely considered dead after… Half a year I think. So… I thought: why not try to make a life here instead of worrying everyday about being able to go back or not?" She looked at the other two Eevee there. "To put it simply, my blood family surely thinks me dead, I didn't have any love interest back and my only thoughts for the future where thinking forward to what I'll do next weekend. Here I got a crush on a handsome orange Jolteon." She couldn't help but smile as she heard herself saying this line. "And even if there I had a lot of possibilities for a living, here I got just as much if not more." She concluded.

Elly cheered for her. "That's more like it! Go get them girl! Albeit… I find it weird that you'd find a Jolteon attractive if you were human for most of your life… then again, what makes you fall in love with someone is not only his appearance, but also his personality." She looked at Eric, who swimming around and splashing water against the other Kaisers, trying to convince Jake to join them but unable to do so. "He's thick skulled at times, but when you really need him he'll always be there for you. Kind as they come, he sometimes brings me breakfast to the bed… but nothing fancy, he doesn't know how to cook.

"Someone's getting dreamy." Shade found her voice to tease the older and make the younger laugh a bit.

"Oh, hush! Can't wait until you fall in love with someone. And besides, there's a lot more to it than just being dreamy, you know? He's someone I can trust… someone who I know will stick by my side no matter what happens, and who shares the same love I do for what we do: helping others and trying to bring about a better world. And yeah, sometimes it looks like we aren't too much of a team… but he's a capable leader when needed, and even when serious or angry he picks his words."

"We get it, Elly. You'll melt for Eric any day of the week. You sure had a sweet tongue for him, and not only to make him go red." Natalie was the next to say something.

"Oh, I know he does it as well when he's talking with other males. And I really can't wait to hear you sweet talking about Radius when you're around us, so that way I can tease you about it." She leaned close to the tiny Eevee and squinted her eyes, then rubbed her forehead affectionately with a paw, smirking.

Shade giggled at this. "Just give her time. She first has to come forwards to our bro." She commented. "I think I know what he'll say. After all I've seen him sneaking smiling gazes at lil' Nat when he thinks no one's looking." She winked at the older, saying the truth with teasing intentions, and making the little one go red again.

"Shade!" She whined wanting the other to stop.

"Alright, alright, you two need to calm down… I think your hormones are starting to get to you. Wouldn't surprise me, but let's rewind a bit and go back to the important part: Natalie, you have to be absolutely sure you want to do this, because if you do commit, you can not back away. Don't make the decision on the fly, just think it over for a while, and then make your choice, ok?" Elly couldn't do anything but advise her as best as she could. She hoped the girl wouldn't make too rash of a decision.

The green eyed Eevee nodded at her. "I know. It's a big decision after all, and I've been mulling it over for a time already and I came to thit point: there's almost nothing back for us, while here we could have a future. It's true we have our blood family back, but it's been so long that… I don't know." She let out the last part with a sigh, both her head and heart were torn, yet there was that uncertainty.

The older Eevee didn't have anything to say about that, unable to relate to having family waiting for her somewhere in the world, but instead smiled. She knew she was responsible and would make the right decision eventually.

* * *

The time at the pools was a welcomed refreshing for everyone during the heat of the day. Everyone enjoying some goofing around and relaxing having fun before deciding to go back to the room. Laziness fell upon everyone after all the day's events so most of them just laid down wherever they felt more comfortable as the rest of the day went on.

"You know, there's a new movie tonight at the cinema room. What do you say we end the day with that?" Luca asked everyone. The Lucario having been gossiping a bit with other Pokémon and humans during the afternoon. Most of the Kaiser decided to give it a try, after all it was free entrance unless one wanted to get a snack to see the movie with.

"I think I'll pass." Ichiro answered. "I already went there last night and I'm sure that movie will be there all week."

"Might as well. What's the movie going to be about?" Eric asked from the couch he was laying on, petting Elly's ears who was laying besides him.

Luca shrugged. "Dunno. I haven't found any information on it, but if you don't like it you can go. It's for free after all."

Being the only one to say he was going to stay the rest of the hours until dinner, when everyone went to the restaurant. After getting their fill, Ichiro went back to the room while the rest went to the cinema room.

It turned out to be a horror movie, not for everyone's tastes. Everyone had gotten comfortable on their seats. The Kaiser Pokémon were sitting almost on a square formation by the central seats of the cinema, while Team Star took the front seats, trying to keep close to each other. Soon after the movie started it was clear it was a horror one, those that weren't interested on it for whatever reason stood up and left the room. Luca and Hadrim started to make comments trying to predict what was going to happen; Dust and Emily decided to hide under the seats, Natalie and Shade were hugging each other at the first jumpscare; Dark and Radius simply had a bored face; and Luna was literally snoring away.

"Ok. I don't dislike horror movies but this is just garbage." Radius commented with a low voice, jumping down his seat and heading for the door.

Dark followed soon after, not particularly fond of this movies himself. "Hey." He said as he leant down to the two shaking Eevee's, almost making them have a heart attack and earning a smack on the face for it.

"Don't ever do that again!" Natalie almost barked at him as he massaged his slapped cheeks.

"I was just going to ask you if you wanted to go back to the room. Me and Radius are heading off." He said with a slightly annoyed tone yet keeping it low. The two female Eevee looked at each other before nodding and leaving their shared seat to go out as well. Zed quickly followed them out of the room, Eric catching a glimpse of his friend and tapping his back right before he got down from his chair. He could see every inch of his fur stand on edge, even in the dim lighting, and when the dark type turned around with a terrified face his friend couldn't help but smirk and then shrugged.

"I'm leaving. I can't stand this movie, too scary." Eric sighed and looked at Elly, whose eyelids were slowly sinking down and trying to close her eyes, then quickly snapping to attention with every loud noise. He elbowed her side and she turned to face him, dazed.

"Zed can't stand this movie, and you look really sleepy. Want to leave and call it a day?" It was fairly late, and they had been fighting and training all morning, so she shrugged and agreed with the idea. She informed Lucy of their decision. but she opted to remain to honor the bet she and Nox had, even if the two of them were terrified by the jumpscares and Serge was just snoring away. As they left Jake got up and left the room after them, stating that it was too predictable and thus, boring for him.

"Either way, it's just boring… like, not even scary, and the characters keep making these dumb decisions that makes it hard to root for them." As they came out to the outside the fresh air bathed their faces, making them all sigh with relief. "Seriously, I don't know if it was either Nox or the room itself… but I'm so heated up I could go for the ice type pool right about now…"

"Now that sounds wrong…" Eric teased, making the Eevee blush and their companions roll their eyes at the comment. Of course he would make such a comment.

Just a little bit ahead of them, Dark, Natalie, Shade and Radius were calmly walking back as well. The four Pokémon chatting a bit. Radius at the moment complaining how the movie was the worst he had seen of that kind. He even asked his sisters how could they get scared for that.

"Come on those jumpscare where more predictable than Luna kicking some male's nuts for trying to hit on her." The Jolteon said. "You didn't get scared, right Dark?"

"I just don't like the genre. I find it just boring. Come on, who on their right minds decide to split up when they all know where to go?" He shrugged. "That's just stupid."

"Says Mister 'I-wanna-be-alone'." Natalie teased him and he just gave her a little glare that made the other three giggle and chuckle. Eric hissed at the burn, while his three friends rolled their eyes and smiled.

"She has a point." Said Shade.

"They got you, bro."

"Oh shut up before I make you walk into the ice pool."

"I wouldn't mind. They didn't put up the AC in there and Luna's like a radiator when she sleeps."

"You do realize that Nox is fifty times worse? Not only is he a stronger radiator, but he's also a pervert. It's a great combination of qualities that make him a fantastic pokémon to hang out with, specially in the summer." Elly quickly butter in to add to Natalie's complaints.

"Do you think they'll mind much if someone somehow makes them take a dip in freezing cold water?" Rad came up with a possibly nice prank.

The emerald eyed Eevee giggled. "Depends if you wanna have your ass roasted afterwards, lil' bro."

"Speaking of cold water. How does Dust stand that pool? I tried getting in and almost froze my mane!"

"Perhaps he just doesn't mind the cold as much… then again, there can be some severe adverse effects from staying in cold water for too long, specifically for the inguen." Elly couldn't hold back laughter when Jake said that, confusing everyone who didn't know what that word meant.

"Uh… Oi, Jake. I think the joke would be funnier if it didn't seem like you are poking fun of whom can't understand you." Radius' comment made Jake scoff and look away, complaining that it was his choice of words which made the joke funny in the first place.

"I think Elly's reaction should give you a good idea of what that means. Didn't think you had it in you, Jake." The Riolu patted his friend's back.

"Perhaps I am growing to be more like you… not like that is a good thing of course." He quickly added the last part to avoid any misinterpretation of his words.

"Even then, hypothermia is quite something to deal with, won't you agree?" The voice wasn't from any of them, and made the whole group look around for whom had said that.

"I agree with him. It can even kill the unprepared." Another voice said, feminine in this case.

"Yeah, you're r-" Zed's eyes widened and looked up, finding the source of the voices: Mesprit and Azelf were looming above them, threatening smiles on their faces. The pink one lunged for him, obviously with bad intentions, and the Zorua tried to duck away, unable to move because of the damage of his paws and crying out in pain. Eric quickly dashed in and pushes his friend away while charging at the legendary

Azelf got in the way as well "Bad move." He said afterwards, floating a bit upwards, rising a paw and moving a finger side to side, as if taunting the Riolu.

Eric growled and looked up, making the fatal mistake of looking straight at his eyes, he saw them flash for an instant as they met, and almost in an instant he felt his knees buckle underneath his body's weight, his arms going limp and his eyelids falling heavy. But he wasn't asleep, but that anger he felt after Zed had been attacked was completely gone, and slumped down on the floor like a lifeless puppet, looking up at the sky in an almost vegetative state.

"Hmm do I catch the sweet taste of confusion?" Mesprit asked as she floated around the blue headed legendary and in front of the downed Riolu and giggled like a little girl. "I wonder how much can I play with you." She even poked his head with a paw.

Everyone stared at the scene in confusion, and Jake's mind raced with possibilities and explanations. The moment he remembered that Mesprit and Azelf were the legendaries that represented emotions and will respectively was when Elly charged in, absolutely enraged, summoning two psychic blades and even the black sphere, changing it into a fist and trying to punch them into oblivion and charging into slice them into bits before she forced them to make Eric go back to normal.

Radius growled and dashed forwards to them as well, charging up electricity in a moment as he tried to ram into both legendary pokemon and push them away from his friends, with and added extra shock.

"Wait, don't do it!" The ice tried to stop them, but was unfortunately too late.

"Too late, know it all!" Azelf said, again getting up front, eyes flashing again as he attacked her the same way he had done to Eric, at the same time Mesprit turned and blocked Radius Wild charge with a psychic barrier.

Jake didn't approach them, instead using icicles to distract them, knowing that this wasn't a battle they were going to win with brute strength. He turned to face Dark, who was just paralyzed in place as some instinct against fear had taken hold of him. Before he could charge in and possibly end up like the others however, Jake stopped him by grabbing his hair and yanking it back painfully. "Compose yourself!"

The Zoroark was shaken awake by that pull and looked at the Sneasel, then back at the fight. "What's going on?" He asked. then looked at Shade and Natalie, who were on his same state from a moment before and knelt to wake them up as well. While Elly was fighting back the effects of Azelf's ability and Radius was fencing them off with thunderbolts, Jake explained the situation.

"They are Emo and William, the legendary pokémon that control emotions and will respectively. And it seems that they've allies themselves with Dailos' faction and are here to kill you both." He stared at the effects of their powerful psychic control on Eric. "William shall remove our will to fight, or even live, and Emo will most likely play with our emotions and turn us on eachother… This is not a fight we can win through brute force!"

Dark listened to the ice type and then concentrated on pushing the other two awake. When he managed to snap them back to themselves he turned to Jake. "You've got a plan, then?" He asked. "If physical fighting isn't going to work then is time to be smart." The dark fox said as he looked for Zed, the last one that wasn't fighting.

Jake bit his lip and looked at Natalie, Shade and Zed. "I do have a slight idea… but I will need you to follow me and we shall need some sort of distraction, so you three will have to stay behind and distract them. The two females nodded to this, their face of shock gone, showing a firm expression now, and Zed had already transformed into a Riolu, able to stand on his hind legs and move, albeit his forearms were still cut and furless, still wounded from their confrontation with the Pursuer. "So you trust me? Even if I am asking you all to essentially sacrifice yourselves?"

"You may risk a lot but you seem to get the job done with your plans." Natalie said. "And I know this is not the time for praises so let's get to it." Shade nodded to her sister's words and as the younger had said, there wasn't time for words, even less when they heard water splashing and one of the pulls getting electrified, then seeing Radius come out of it to run back into the battle with fierce, even if he couldn't break through Emo's psychic protection, who was just giggling non stop as the Jolteon looked madder than ever as he tried to break it, being overly reckless on his attack.

"Besides, any of us has a plan at the moment nor will have enough time to come up with one." Shade commented, everyone looking back at the Sneasel. He looked at them and nodded.

"Just get us as much time as you can… Dark, come with me! Immediately!" Jake dashed back into the hotel, heading straight for the restaurant area. The Zoroark looked a moment at them all.

"Please, be careful." He said before turning and following Jake, then noticed the almost lifeless bodies of humans and other pokémon sprawled all over the ground, some of them with their front halves in the fountain in the reception, forcing the duo to get them out just in case. "They didn't want anyone to intervene… we must go to the restaurant. At such a late hour there will be no one there, and we'll be able to set up the traps with no complications."

Nat and Shade turned and immediately started to try and help with the battle, sending each a Shadow ball towards their foes. "Zed, try to tell Elly about the distraction." Natalie said to the transformed Zorua after the first attack as Shade sent stars at the two legendary Pokémon, joining her afterwards with the same attack. "Shade, be quick with your wishes." She said to the silver Eevee, who nodded. They all charged in, determined to buy the Sneasel and the Zoroark enough time.

As Jake shattered the glass door that lead into the restaurant he started ordering Dark around and telling him what to do and what to grab. "This… And I swear upon my grave. This shall be their last surprise." The Zoroark actually paid attention to the instructions, making sure everyone well set up.

* * *

The movie was finally coming to an end, and everyone in the cinema was apparently enjoying the film… but all of the pokémon and humans inside were in the same state as the Team Star members who had bravely confronted Will and Emo, Zed being the last one to give in, his desire to help his friends being far too great. William just smirked.

"No matter how much you try. Your will is mine." He said, concentrated on taking it and leave him disabled, just like everyone else.

Meanwhile, Mesprit was hovering over Natalie, looking into the Eevee's eyes with a smile. The normal type crying at the moment as she felt an intense sadness flood her body. "Oww. you're sad, little one? What is it?" Emo said, caressing her cheek, just to then hold her by one ear and rise her head. "Actually, I don't care." She said as her eyes flashed once again, Nat feeling her blood boiling with anger, yet she didn't feel like doing anything at all. The only thing she could do was stay still, letting the legendary play with her head.

Meanwhile, Dark looked from a hiding spot, growling slightly seeing this but staying in place. "Is everything ready?" He asked, his voice giving away he wanted to hurry. Once done with Zed, William looked around, starting to look for the last two Pokémon. This was being too easy, and he liked that. They just needed to take care of the last two.

"Quit playing and get rid of that human already!" He said to his sister.

Emo just humped. "You are a killjoy." She said.

"We are not here to play, Emo. We've got work to do and I'd rather do it before any human here sees us!"

"Well, sorry for making you fall out of schedule, you willing jerk!" Those words surprised her brother for a moment but he then went to her with an angry face.

"Look, you little pinky! If we don't get this done already, Dailos will get our damn heads! So I apologize for wanting to keep mine attached to my body!"

The two legendary Pokémon fell into an argument, with her spouting and shouting things out of the blue, her own emotions having gone awry after tinkering and shifting their victims for so long, serving as a major drawback of her powers. Just as their argument reached its highest peak, the lights for the restaurant area lit up, and with them being outside they could peer through the windows to spot their missing marks: Jake and Dark were waiting inside, staring at them defiantly, clearly eager to make their last stand in an area where they wouldn't have to deal with live related collateral.

"Are this two really arguing now? And to think I was afraid." The Zoroark said, looking at the Sneasel with a smirk, while he too grinned at the legendaries.

"I shall speak with my leaders and properly resign for falling to such lowly tactics from a pair of insignificant goons. Clearly, the epitome of pathetic: god like creatures serving another entity who is too afraid to do their own dirty work. You might as well consider yourselves puppets with no free will." He chuckled, looking at William. "Oh, the irony."

( **Last Surprise - Persona 5** )

Emo now was seething with rage. The Mesprit let out an angered noise and launched herself at them. "We'll see who's the pathetic weakling here!" She roared as she dashed for them, the Azelf looked at them with much more controlled anger instead. However she merely smashed herself into the glass panes, which stood strong and only shook slightly, surprising both of the pokémon on the other side, but now triggering actual laughter from the two, even Jake, whose usual creepy laughter was now much more jolly, perhaps because he found the situation hilarious. Dark just couldn't hold back even with the serious situation they were in, seeing her smash face first into that was just worth one of those prank shows from TV, and the laugh actually relaxed him a bit so he could concentrate on doing his part of the job.

Once recovered, Emo's rage was impossible to raise anymore, and her eyes showed murderous intent. Will by her side, angered at being underestimated, they went into the reception area and entered through the restaurant's main doors. Both of them looked around. The Azelf then saw the Sneasel, sitting on a table at the other side of the room and, after making sure this time by feeling the source of the Sneasel's will he pointed. "Over there." He said. The moment his sister saw the ice type she dashed against him, her brother right behind him. Jake didn't even need to taunt them more with how angry the two where.

In their rush, they didn't notice what these two Pokémon had prepared for them. Since the restaurant was a large open space with many columns and pillars, they had stacked up dozens of metallic trays, plates and all sorts of cooking and eating apparatus behind one of them on top of a chair, then tied an almost invisible thin cord between the leg of the chair and a table opposite to it. As Emo rushed to them and snapped the cord, the chair was dragged forward and the pile lost its balance, falling right on top of her unsuspecting head with an extremely loud clatter, much to the Sneasel's amusement, who rolled his eyes and laughed. "Idiots! You were so distracted by our incessant taunting you never realized the simplest trap in front of you! Even a cub could set up such a trick, and yet you fell for it, hook, line and sinker!" He couldn't help but laugh harder. "What shall you do now, Azelf? Your friend is now g-"

What they didn't take into account was the Mesprit's emotions making her much more resilient and willing to fight back. Even though the amount of things that had fallen on her head was generous, she rose up from the pile with a roar of anger, splinters and bent metal flying everywhere, then charged for the Sneasel. He gasped in surprise, bracing himself for the inevitable hit... until she suddenly phased right through the ice type and crashed right into what seemed to be an invisible wooden board. She snapped it in half and halted her momentum, and instants after this the massive pile of tables, chairs and trays fell down on top of her, the massive weight and volume of the trap's contents knocking her out for good and burying her in an impressive pile of debris.

William looked at this for a moment, then at were the Sneasel stood, there was nothing now. then he realized. The human had learned to use the ability of his species and had used them to trick them to fall for these stupid traps with such simple taunts. His anger rose again, but he decided to keep his cool this time. the Azelf moved much more carefully now, watching wherever he was going for possible trap triggers and also looking for his targets. He decided to prioritize the Sneasel as he had demonstrated to be quite the brain, and then he could easily get rid of the human. Feeling his will, the blue headed psychic went for the ice type.

"Brilliantly done Dark! Your finesse with your illusions has certainly improved!" The blue furred pokémon dodged and weaved between chairs, making sure to put as many obstacles and distance between him and his opponent, almost as if here were stalling for time.

"Stop squishing around you little rat!" William yelled as he followed the Sneasel, pushing everything away with his psychic powers to clean his path and get to the ice type, having an idea and trying to corner him against the wall so he couldn't escape from him. Jake knew he was cornered, but that was alright with him, wearing a devious smirk on his face as he posed for William, right foot in front of the other, standing sideways and with his arms crossed, his right hand rubbing his chin.

"Perhaps I should warn you that the second trap was aimed to knock you out, instead of your partner… Luck is, as they say, a bitch." He rose his hands. "But that is alright… Luck or not, I am always a step ahead!" He clapped his hands and the lights in the entire restaurant went out. "Dark, now!"

The Zoroark's eyes accustomed quickly to the lack of light and he concentrated, a group of Jake clones raising up on top of the tables surrounding him, then ran around in different directions, all of them going in front of the Azelf as to try and confuse the psychic type. "I knew there was a slight possibility one of the traps would miss… for that reason I set up an additional trap." His voice seemed to come from everywhere. "A wire, a candle and an ice block was all it took to set up a simple timer where, after the candle burnt the string, the ice block would fall and turn off the lights. Once again, another classic! And now…" Will felt his claws slashing into his flesh and opening up a wound in his side, too quick to even process it, and then another on his back. Even if he tried to turn around and grab him his hand phased through a fake.

The Psychic legendary groaned and rose from the floor, trying to avoid getting more hit and concentrated once again on the will of the Sneasel, this allowing him to render the human's illusions useless and go for the right target. Dark tried to distract him by making some of the clones attack him but the Azelf just let the phase through. ' _Damnit! This isn't working!_ ' The bipedal fox thought, trying to come up with a way to strike him down if Jake's plan didn't work anymore.

( **Stop the music** )

When the ice type attacked again, Will was ready and blocked him with a smile using a psychic barrier. "Did you really think that would work for long? I can see the source of your will." He said as he used his psychic to enclose the feline in a square of tables laying on their side, holding them at the same time he pushed forwards to get close to the Sneasel. "A source I'll be taking away right now!"

However, before his hand could reach him, the Sneasel defied him and grabbed his hand, and the amount of will he found within was staggering, a murderous intent in his eyes. "Go ahead… you shall find that my desire to defend and avenge these pokémon is unlike anything you've ever seen… I owe them my life, my purpose. The will you right now are trying to steal like a leech is what they gifted me. Before… I was just a husk, but now I strive to be something else… Something that you sadly will never reach." His smile grew wider. "And I will do nothing short of killing to defend them." He pushed back. "Checkmate." Just then, William received a very strong hit on the back of his head that made him stagger forwards, dazed. Will turned around to see a Zoroark holding a chair by the legs, the back of it broken, before he fell to the floor, knocked out cold.

After making sure he was out of it, Dark let out a sigh of relief. "That was too close!" He let out. "You okay?" He asked Jake, the Sneasel standing back up as he recovered from the attack. As he did he quickly reached for the mid section of Dark's mane and pulled him, making the Zoroark fall on his butt and lower to his size.

"Repeat any of what I just said to anyone else, and I shall perform a vasectomy on you with no anesthesia. Are we clear?"

"You don't need to threaten my male bits, dude. I wasn't going to get into your things." The Zoroark said. "By the way you are welcome." He added afterwards. Jake released him and let out a breath of relief, chuckling.

"Forgive me… I had to make sure. Halfway through my sermon I remembered there was someone else in the room… By the way, nice use of your illusions, and your intervention with the chair was spot on as well. Improvisation, as Nox and Serge put it, truly is a strategy in it of itself…" He stood back up, then helped his companion up.

"My control of illusions is not perfect yet. If not for the little light I think he wouldn't have fell for them for that long, if at all." Dark said, being half serious, half modest, but then his face snapped. "Shit! Let's check on the others!" He said and rushed out of the restaurant. Jake followed close behind, and as they got outside they saw another boy standing besides them, checking on their unconscious figures.

"Their minds are recovering from the effects of the drainage, but now that Will and Emo are unconscious they will recover in just a few short minutes…" The blond boy looked up at them with closed eyes, smiling. "You need not worry. Your friends are perfectly fine."

Dark however, wasn't so light on trusting this time. "Who are you?" He asked, lifting a paw ready to charge up a move. Jake, however, didn't move at first, going back to his time spent reading and studying legendaries. He stepped forward.

"You're Uxie, the last of the legendary lake trio, are you not?"

The hiding legendary looked at the ground and sighed, his disguise vanishing into thin air as he revealed his true form to them. "Yes, I am. And I must thank you for defeating my siblings and not killing them on the spot… Heavens know they've done a great deal of evil, b-"

"Spare your excuses. I wish to know on what side you stand on, as they turned out to be with Dailos' faction. Whose side do you support?" Uxie didn't answer immediately to that question, instead going back to the discussion he and Adam had had the night prior.

"I stand… with neither. I just want my family back, that is all. My brothers made a poor choice to side with that Arceus, even if humans do deserve some time of punishment… We, out of all pokémon know this very well."

"You all share that opinion, that humans need a punishment. How is it then that you are not all on the same side? Different ideas for punishments?" Dark asked, not actually expecting an answer as he walked to the group and also checked on them, sighing seeing Natalie more calm now and caresing her face gently.

"We, to a certain extent, can control knowledge, emotions and will. When we looked at humanity, the only things we saw were dark memories, evil desires and weak spirits. My brethen were fed up with it, and rightly so… but they too, saw that not all of them were like so, just as I did when I looked further into the problem. Hence why I stand with neither of these factions… until this very day."

Jake rose an eyebrow, the tip of claws poking out of his arms. "Explain."

Uxie, however, only chuckled and shook his head. "Calm down. Before I can explain, however, I must speak to my siblings… once they are awake, and your friends should be here as well, I shall explain on what side of the fence we stand." He repeated Adam's words and slowly drifted past the duo and into the restaurant, while they looked at each other and tended to their partners, who were starting to break out of their haze. Meanwhile, Uxie unburied his sister from the pile of debree and picked up his brother from the floor, putting them close together and snapping his fingers. They both woke up almost immediately, and found themselves staring directly at the yellow legendary.

"Brother…" There was a hint of anger in Azelf's voice, though it was quickly replaced by the shame that had invaded Mesprit's once she had seen his knowing smile.

"You two had me worried… They are strong pokémon, and they could've easily killed you, but they thankfully didn't."

"What are you doing here?" William asked, looking away, avoiding any possible eye contact, even if his brother had his closed.

"I wanted to take you both back. I know you made a bad decision, a decision which I knew you would instantly regret upon seeing Dailos' true colors." He almost spat the name, frowning. "But we all saw the same things when we delved into the collective unconscious to make our decisions: we saw the good and the evil that humans hold in their hearts, which is not that different of that of pokémonkind."

Neither said anything for a moment there, just looking away. The Azelf not wanting to talk and the Mesprit not finding what to say. "We know." The blue headed said, now looking at his brother. "But… I just can't stand it! How some humans see their lives destroyed and just keep focused on their damn egotistical goal of being gods! Turning away from their families or even using them! You can't say those kind of… monsters deserve to keep living if they can't learn their damned lesson!"

"And yet we have seen the same behaviour from pokémon too… and did you not do the same? Turned away from me once I realized that maybe mankind deserved a second chance instead of Dailos' bloodier alternative?"

Will stood there in silence for a moment. "He got you lil' bro." Mesprit chimed in with a giggle.

"Shut up!" He said, getting very childish with the gesture he made as he said that.

"Yes, I did. Now wipe that frown from your faces, and listen to me: It's simply not worth it. By allying yourselves with Dailos you've only fueled the raging fires of war, and made an enemy of who used to be our friends… but we can mend that." He looked out the window and looked at Dark and Natalie hugging each other. "Those two are said to be able to bring him down, and with the help of their friends I am sure they will make Dailos come to reason. After that, we shall deal with humanity like we always have, and perhaps in the future, our words of wisdom and peace shall bring about a better world for all of us." He gave them his arm. "Violence was never the answer, you two, you know this better than me… and I'm the know it all of this family!" He quickly turned to a more cheerful tone, happy to see that they were taking in and considering his words.

Both of his siblings laughed heartily and then looked outside as well, seeing the moment the two Korel shared to then look at their yellow headed brother. "There's something you don't know." Will said. "And it's how much I hate it when you are right you little smartass!" He said going to his brother and rubbing his fist on his head, making the yellow one struggle and complain while laughing.

"Uhm guys. Do you think we should hide? The hotel guests will start to come out of the movies room any moment now." Emo asked.

"Don't worry, we'll have more than enough time…" He looked back at the mess that had been made out of the restaurant. "I don't know what will happen with this, but… that is probably not our problem. Now, let's meet up with them." He lead them outside, smiles on their faces until they met up with the pokémon they had toyed with before. Uxie was the one that stepped up when they approached. "I have discussed what just happened with my siblings, and I believe they have something to tell you."

Will floated forwards then and landed on the floor with the face of shame as he fidgeted to speak. "We… uh… er…" He stuttered.

"For being the incarnation of will you sure have a lack of it sometimes." Emo said as she went by his side, earning the typical brother glare from him, making four of the present relate and giggle a bit.

In the end he sighed and looked at them all. "We wanted to apologize for what we have done to you. We made a mistake and our brother has made us see it." He said, lowering his head in a slight bow. "We're very sorry for what we've just done, please forgive us." He said, Emo doing almost the same but not as pronounced as her brother. They all looked at them, some accepting their apology, others being a bit more skeptic.

She also added. "We will no longer follow Dailos' orders from now on, so you don't need to worry about us anymore."

"So then what will you do?" Eric's question made Uxie smile.

"We will most likely be forced to run away. If there is something Dailos hates more than humans it's traitors. My siblings have just become that, and Dailos has become their enemy… And the enemy of my enemy is my ally, as they say." Jake shared Uxie's sly smirk as he understood what they were going to do.

"So you will join the opposite front?"

"We don't intend on fighting this war or doing anything of the sort. We simply want to run away and survive, and if we must collaborate with them in some way then so be it… the only thing I desire is my family's safety. That is all. I convinced them that maybe humanity deserves another chance, but we will have to work hard to make sure something like this never happens again." Uxie stared sternly at Natalie and Dark, the two former humans. "But I believe it can happen."

"That is… respectable, I guess. Best of luck to three of you then." Elly smiled, accepting the apology and wishing them the best, albeit deep inside she was still angry about what had happened to Eric. Because of this, Uxie chuckled and turned to face her.

"The same goes to you, warriors from another world… before I leave however, I shall let you know I wipe the memories of all the humans and pokémon that were affected, and also made sure that there is no evidence of our actions… except for the mess that was made in the restaurant." He pointed at the mess in question, and everyone saw a broken chair hanging from the top of the pile and fall to the ground with a loud crash. They all faced Dark and Jake, and the Sneasel only shrugged in response. While Dark scratched the back of his neck with a really nervous laugh.

"What did you want me to do? Hit them with flowers until they gave up?"

"It wouldn't have been as effective, trust me… but I hope that this suffices in order for you to forgive them… Now, we must bid you farewell." He pulled his family together, looking at them with a smile and then at the pokémon that had defeated them. "Good luck." And with that final sentence, they all teleported into nothingness and disappeared, leaving the group to their own struggles.

"Wow… I still can't believe it!" Zed looked at the ice type. "You and Dark took down two legendaries at the same time! And they defeated Eric and Elly beforehand too!" Both of the aforementioned pokémon laughed.

"If they hadn't charged into them in such an idiotic manner perhaps this could've all been avoided… but alas, everything ended well and I finally got the training session I was promised this morning. It wouldn't have worked if it hadn't been for Dark's illusions and quick thinking: he saved me from having my will drained at the very last second." He said this while staring specifically at Eric, who listened to his words carefully and then looked at the bipedal fox.

"Come on, I just improvised a bit. If not for Jake's planning I doubt we would have reached that point. I don't think any of us could come up with such an idea that fast." Dark said, finding something really interesting on the nearest light post from their position, deciding to look wherever except the eyes of the rest of the group.

"Well. Either way I think the restaurant tomorrow is going to be closed for breakfast." Natalie said as she looked at the mess from outside.

"I gotta be honest. Never thought I'll see Jake having such a blast as he just did in there. He was like a kit on his first trip to an amusement park." Dark decided to change the topic, not gonna tell a word about what the Sneasel said, but there was never an agreement about telling them about his behavior, and he spilled the beans about it, even telling them he actually struck a pose before the final part of the plan.

Jake simply smiled. "I cannot lie: I do thoroughly enjoy when I prove I am intellectually superior to an opponent. Fights that are won through brute strength are nothing to boast about, at least in my opinion… this was a battle of wits that I won in, and for that, I must admit I have a tendency to, as you say, 'show off'."

"Awww man, the one time I actually could've seen Jake being a normal pokémon and I was lying on the floor looking at the stars… damn it, they never apologized for that!" The Riolu's joke made everyone laugh, and even Jake chuckled a bit, although he snuck in a glare directed at the Zoroark, followed by a slitting motion across his throat. His response was a shrug from the bipedal as he chuckled, as if telling him he never said anything about that part and thus their agreement kept being valid.

As they all discussed and settled down, humans and pokémon alike were starting to wake up out of their stupor, and soon they were roaming the outside area and some screamed and pointed out the destruction in the restaurant, while made Elly cringe. "Yeaaah… I think we should head to the room. I'll go fetch everyone from the cinema and we'll discuss what happened there." She quickly dashed back inside to get their friends, while Eric looked at Dark. As they started walking, he stood by the Zoroark.

"I know Jake isn't one to joke and lie about battles and one's performance in them… so I shall take his word for it and consider you've improved." He didn't look at him directly, but he had a slight smirk on his face. "I still haven't forgiven you for what happened back home…" He turned to face him. "But you're one step closer now."

Hearing the other, Dark looked at him as he talked. With those words he felt as if his nerves were put at ease to an extent, and the dark fox nodded as he smiled at this. Eric returned the motion with a nod and they all left for their room, feeling more at ease with each other, finally reaching some closure.

* * *

 **Ray: and thus another chapter done! Woohoo! Yet I wonder what movie was it that it was so bad.**

 **Eric: Probably some generic Friday the 13th ripoff movie, of the which there are thousands upon thousands… as a fan of the horror genre I really can't say I've enjoyed any that's come out in recent times… but I still have faith!**

 **Ray: Well, I would like to know what movie did the readers thought of, honestly. But back to topic. Seems like there are no vacations for Dailos goons, is there?**

 **Eric: Evil doesn't rest, and neither does good… this was an exception though, and just because they're heroes doesn't mean they can't catch a breather… but don't worry, for all you drama lovers out there, you're going to love what comes next… *FORESHADOWING FORESHADOWING FORESHADOWING FORESHADOWING FORESHADOWING***

 **Ray: -eyetwitch- Yeah well… Things to keep going up after this little skirmish. Or even better as it seems some tension is starting to get fixed.**

 **Eric: THat's the way it goes! Some down time, and now we're getting back in business!**

 **Ray: Whatever. Next part is one I've been looking forwards to from a lot of time! And I hope we can pull it out right. But so you don't say we were lying, there is still one more chapter in between. Rest assured, as it will be the inflexion point between this two parts.**

 **Eric: Yep, so be looking forward to that! See you all next time!**

 **Ray: Leave a review, we don't bite… much hehe. Hope to see you guys next one! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**


	19. Chapter 18 - Paradigm Shift

**Eric: Alright people, shorter chapter today, some stuff happened and we weren't able to focus too much on writing it, and because of the nature of this chapter, it being some sort of in between, a point of inflexion, it was short, but I promise you it'll be sweet. Now, let's not waste your time and respond to your wonderful reviews!**

 **Rayrudan: For Luxux: The only things I can answer you is to Eric's Aura staff. Basically all that can summon and aura bone can shape it how they want, and the colour depends on the wielder's Aura color. So the people of my world would think his aura is white and he likes staffs, also a lucky cosplayer.**

 **About the Spanish translation it's in my profile, yet it's been stopped since it took us forever to publish one chapter in both languages.**

 **Eric: I was a bit confused at your comment about Eric's mind expanding… but I think I understand what you mean, and no it wasn't like that hahaha. Yeah, everyone took on a series of fighters to show off their skills. While they might be formidable opponents physically. what really matters at the end of the day is their skill, and Team Star, because of their job and the way their world is, have more than enough. Lucy was able to beat Excadrill and Aggron because they're part steel, and there's a side of her powers that not even she knows of yet that completely shreds any and all steel types and any type of metals.**

 **And yes, Jake pulled off the Persona vibe fantastically. He might be cold most of the time, but who's to say he can't show off every so often too?**

 **Eric: And hello to you again West, it's always a pleasure to see you reviewing! And we all have our own pace, your style is much more methodical and description heavy, ours is more action and dialogue based. Everything takes the amount of time it needs.**

 **Rayrudan: awww too bad you don't have words for the first scene u.u I thought the transition would pull some comments. Wellp whatever :P**

 **Eric: Yeah, they don't play around. Elly just used that bone to deliver one hell of a beatdown, because that's just the only thing she could do without actually harming them.**

 **Rayrudan: Yeah. Dark and Radius need some experience with their things and learn to be either more active in battle or to not lock themselves on a single style of fighting. Dust has some more of them but even then everyone has their… pet peeves? And he sometimes relies to much on physical attacks with some ranged when he needs space.**

 **About pokeballs… Yes, depends on how the trainer sees them. Some even use them as punishment devices… others as a last resort of containment. About Natalie I will not say anything, just keep reading. And Jake and Dark with fighting innovations. Heh, Dark just followed the plan Jake set up. If you can't touch your opponents you are either doomed or forced to find another way to fight.**

 **Alright, and now we won't bother you anymore! Enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 18**

 **Paradigm Shift**

She was stressed, yet she kept on giving a smile to everyone around her. Alejandra was taking a calm stroll around town, looking at everyone and waving at them, always the cheery girl, some even called her a cheerleader, saying that around her nothing could go wrong. However, not all was going as fine as she made it seem. Behind that smile she was worried, very worried. It has been half a year now. Since she, Lisa, Reisor, Ruper and Simbra had taken two humans from their world to this to help. Somehow during the teleport they had lost the humans, that ended somewhere not even the Palkia could tell. She feared they had lost them for good, but a friend reassured her that their souls hadn't made it to the Distortion World yet. Those news where both reassuring and a reason to worry even more. She couldn't help but worry. She was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a pink Mew printed on it enjoying some music with headphones, on her head she had a a pink hat with little floops that simulated a Mew's ears, completing with a skirt that didn't reached to her knees but wasn't small either and light blue sandals.

The girl kept her calm walk calmly, until a voice surprised her. "Do you ever stop smiling?" A red haired girl dressed with a white plain T-shirt and deep blue, very short trousers with braces going over her shoulders and holding them. Her yellow eyes half lidded. By her side where a blond and blue haired boys. They wore much of the same attire, just that the boys had longer pants and their where lime green T-shirt and white trousers for the blond boy, who had his eyes closed, and yellow T-shirt and deep green trousers, his eyes being fully open, as yellow as the girl's.

"What are you three doing here?" Alex asked. "What do you want?" She added, not taking her eyes off of the other three. Uxie took a step forward, speaking for his siblings.

"There is no need for hostilities, Alex. We are not here to battle, and neither do we carry threats from Dailos. We merely wish to speak and ask something of you."

The girl stood there, putting her hands on her hips and looking at the blonde and humming soundly. Then she looked around. She thought for a moment before nodding. "Fine. But let's get to a less… crowded place." She said and started to walk, deciding to give them a chance, and hopefully she'll have a chance to know what she needs so bad to know.

She guided them out of town and away. It took a few minutes since there wasn't any forest close to that town, so once away the actually had to teleport elsewhere, ending up in a cave. "Here should be good enough." She said and turned to look at her visitors, changing from her human form to her birth form, a Mew.

"Very well… I managed to find my siblings, and I convinced them to leave Dailos' faction, hence why they're here with me." He looked at them expectantly, and let them speak for now.

"That's pretty much it." William said as he looked away, the four now being Pokémon. "We had an encounter with the guys you brought and I have to say that boy has a mind for quick thinking." The Azelf said as he rubbed his head with his tails where the chair had hit him.

"Wait… You what!?" She exclaimed, getting almost on the blue headed legendary's face, who backed away seeing her angered face.

"Don't worry. He and one friend of his gave us a run for our berries." Emo said, floating as if laying on her back. "And then big bro here woke us up. We talked things we should have talked the first time before splitting up."

"Oh and who's at fault to that? I remember someone getting a break down when we were going to come to a consensus." William snorted, which got him another female up the face, with an angry face, but she didn't have time to retort.

"This isn't the time for joking you two." He turned to face Alex again. "They sincerely regret all they've done under Dailos' orders, and share my wish to have nothing to do with this war. They're deserters, and we no longer want to participate… but once Dailos discovers they've left his faction he is bound to go searching for them."

"If that lazy bum hasn't moved from the Hall in all this time seems to me he'll send someone else to hunt you down, you know he's still healing his shoulder." Alex said, an angry expression on her face. "Have the Mighty Eye just to watch what you want, what a waste." She commented for herself.

"So then you will help us?" The Uxie inquired, hopeful.

"We never wanted to kill each other, just get Dailos to reason if it's possible. What can we do to help?"

Dominic had to hold back the impulse to hug the Mew. "After all that has happened… you still want to help my family. I… don't know how to thank you…" He sniffed and looked at her, the beginning of tears poking out from his closed eyes. "Yes, we need help to get to a safe place where Dailos cannot reach us. Do you know of any such place?"

She was left thinking. If the being of knowledgement was asking this there wasn't any at all. "Unless…" She voiced and smiled. "Yeah that could work!" She said out loud and excited. "You don't mind holding onto your human form for a while, right? Say… Months? Years?" She asked, she had the perfect place where not even Arceus would search for them. "Because I can think of only one place. However, we want certain information first from you, Dom." She said and he surely knew what she wanted to know.

"Anything. It is the least we can do to thank you for this."

"Ok. We'll go see Lisa then so she can take you to this safe place. On the way I'll explain a few things to you three, but in exchange I want to know where are our guests living. It's been half a year, so they have to be living somewhere!" She said to him.

However, Dom shook his head. "We do not have the answer to that… We do know, however, that they are in the Narel Archipielago, and when my siblings found them they were staying at a hotel on Fierna island. We don't know where else they could be, but… the range has been drastically reduced I think."

"Yeah, at least we don't have to look over the rest of the regions." She sighed. "Heh, what a casualty that they ended up where we all like to take vacations… or work." She giggled, knowing of a pair that literally has a live as humans there.

"Yeah… But they weren't alone. There was also a group of warriors from another world. They called themselves "Team Star". In coordination with one of the humans you took to this world, now a Zoroark, one of them, a Sneasel, defeated Emo and Will, hence how I managed to convince them. Did you also bring them here to help defeat Dailos?"

That was a lot of information at the same time. "Wait! **What**!?" She shouted to it all. "One of them got turned into a Pokémon?" She asked, getting close to him.

"No. Both of them in fact. The other one, the girl, is now an Eevee."

"B-but… How!? That wasn't us, I swear!" She said. Folks say she likes to prank humans sometimes like this. And her worries with this news had grown. After a bit she managed to calm down from her hysterics, that they weren't alone was a good thing, but then. "You said, warriors from another world?" She asked and got to think again, she didn't remember going to look for anyone else. Let alone to another Pokémon world that might be out there. "No. We didn't go for anyone else." She said. She couldn't come up with any reason as to why this 'Team Star' would've appeared nor how could they end up with the humans they asked out for help.

"Then… someone else has dragged them here. We don't know why, or how, but there's more to this than we know. Be on guard, Alex, for I'm afraid Dailos has found new allies or there are new threats asides from him."

She sighed. "There's always other threats. Like those rumours about Pokémon and humans disappearing all of a sudden." She said as an example. "Well I don't have any more questions, something you might want to add to our meeting before going to visit Lisa?" She asked.

"Yes, there is one more thing. Before us, they encountered other assassins sent by Dailos. Dante… and Adam." He remained silent to watch Alex's reaction, careful to not say anything else before that. She was left out of words for once upon hearing the second name, and her face fell slightly.

"However, later he reached out to me so that we could speak in private. He mentioned he was the one to wipe Dante's memories clean, Why? I don't know… but he told me he still loves you. And that he's doing all this for you."

"Adam has always been secretive about everything, despites all my attempts to make him open up. I guess he did in some way." She said, her head hung as she thought about what was going through his mind. "Look, Lisa works in a high school in Mantho city, on Renol Island. Go look for her and ask her to take you to the world of our guests. You should be save there." She said. "If she distrusts you I think you know what to say to her." She said, she needed to take care of other matters now, as risky as it was.

Dominic nodded. "Thank you, Alex. For everything. If you need any help, call us, and we will do everything we can. It is the least we can do for you." Alex nodded and the trio got together and thanked her in unison, before teleporting and going to Renol Island to find Lisa. When Alex was alone, she stood still for a bit before crouching down, crumpling into a ball as she lay her head on her knees, sobbing quietly.

"Brother… Why are you doing this?"

* * *

"Is everything ready?" Daniel asked everyone as they had finished preparing. Things usually tend to end at some point in time, same with vacations trips, and the one the Kaiser and Team Star had shared had reached said point. So the man was making sure everyone had all their things packed so they didn't left anything behind. His family confirming that they had everything after looking over for a second time. Team Star, on the other hand, was much more torn: Lucy was holding onto the couch's side, burying her claws into it and wasn't budging, even to Eric's pulls and Elly's words of support.

"Noooo! I don't want it to be over!" Her desperate cries weren't resonating with anyone else, except maybe Nox, who was taking his absolute longest just to prolong their stay. Zed was ready to go, since Elly had been a real sweetheart and helped him fix up their suitcase, and Eric had taken care of theirs, so the ones left were Serge, Nox and Jake. Nox was slowly walking around and grabbing their things, Jake was simply sitting on the armchair and reading a book and Serge was re-checking the suitcase's contents for the fifth time now, and every time he did so he found out he had left something behind. Eventually, when everything was in it's proper place and he couldn't have possibly forgotten anything else, they managed to tear Lucy away from the couch without leaving marks and took her out of the room, even if she shocked Eric.

"Close it before she tries to slip back inside again!" The blue Riolu ordered as she tried to break away from his grip. The last to get out were Dust and Emily, the golden jackal closing the door, that locked automatically. No one would get in without they keycard, or tearing the door down. They had already told Lucy no one likes it when vacations are over, yet she seemed to just ignore them, or maybe just the golden jackal.

After managing to get everyone to the lobby and turning in the keycards of the room the receptionist wished them a good trip and thanked them for coming, wishing that they could come again in the future, which was a very slim possibility with how the prices were so high per night, even if the experience was worth every single poke spent. Once outside, Dani pulled out the Pokeball that held the car and took it out, immediately after the luggage was all put on top of the car again and they all organized their seatings, of course, pairs together, thought this time, Shade was the one sitting with besides Dark as Natalie had hurried to get the spot with Radius, claiming she did that because there was more space at the feet of the humans, blushing slightly when he asked that, the Eevee still not being able to come clean to him with her feelings.

Team Star simply took their spots at the back of the car, trying to stay organized but ending up making a mess of feet and feathers that they had to solve twice after a certain Eevee complained her tail was being squashed by several of her friends. Eventually, they decided that Jake would be on the far left, with the window, followed by Serge, Nox underneath with Lucy and Zed and finally Eric and Elly, with the Eevee on top of her mate so that no one would dare crush her tail again. They all departed from the hotel at a crawling pace, something with Serge took advantage of to start teasing Jake.

"So… someone told me that yesterday you were boasting all over the place fighting those legendaries… Now what did you say? I'm awfully curious. And don't give me that look, I'm just interested in what you sound like when you're boasting!" Serge was quick to defend himself.

"Yeah, it's not like you ever express any other emotion other than seriousness. It's kinda bland. C'mon!" The Houndour's encouragement, however, didn't help.

"I believe that if I open my mouth the teasing shall only get worse, and for this reason I would rather stay silent than speaking." With that simple he went back to reading, having finished the previous two books and now reading "The Shadow of the Wind".

"Aww man, c'mon! If you don't start opening up how are we gonna know when you finally get the juice?" Everyone in Team Star chuckled as Jake shut his book, a noticeable blush on his face. "There! Embarrassment! Jake is embarrassed, I can't believe it!"

The Sneasel smirked as his avian friend laughed, clearing his throat. "What's that you said, Eric? Castrate Serge? With pleasure!" He brought out his claws and faked a lunge at the Pidgeot, who immediately started panicking and flapped his wings, instinctively trying to fly away. The only thing he managed however, was to squish the entirety of the car's right side, making everyone complain and feathers fly everywhere as screaming was the only thing that could be heard, alongside Jake's laughed as Serge panicked.

"No way in hell! I don't want you or anyone in this car down there! Only the most delicate and sensual of paws are allowed! Stop! **Stop!** "

Their laughed was interrupted when Daniel turned around to face them, furious as he drove the car to the side of the road and shouted at them to settle down, alongside the rest of the Kaisers, who were either angry, annoyed or laughing alongside them. As they settled down and Daniel started up the car again, Jake faked annoyance, playing along with their jokes for once.

"What is this? I cannot speak, I cannot act, and I cannot joke. What am I allowed to do?"

"You're allowed to get out of the car, that's what." Lucy retorted, rather annoyed since Serge had accidentally pushed his talon into her face.

Jake gave her a look of realization, then nodded. "Very well then. I'm getting out of the car." He reached for the handle and pulled on it. Smiles and chuckles turned to pure distress as he actually opened the car door as it was running and tried to slip out. Everyone lunged to grab a part of his body and pùlled him while he struggled, shouting for them to let him go.

"Oh for the love of…" Hadrim let out from the other side of the car, using his psychic to lock the doors. "Whatever joke you want to do, keep it within the car." The Espeon said to them with a stern face that even silenced the Kaiser cub's giggles. Once they were all inside and panting heavily it took a while before they all burst into simultaneous laughter, enjoying the silly moments they were having. Even Jake found himself amused by all these shenanigans, something that he simply hadn't expected at all.

Since their ship was late in the afternoon, around dusk time, Dani and Clara had decided that they'll enjoy one last day of vacations at the beach and spent a couple of hours in the morning making sandwiches for everyone, even some vegetarian ones for Team Star, which was the only package the woman had with her. Besides it was such a good day that it almost screamed to them to go to the beach. It didn't take long for them to find a nice mixed beach for both humans and Pokémon, just a couple more hours and they still had a lot of morning and all afternoon ahead, and it wasn't crowded so they'll have enough space for privacy as well.

"Well guys. Since our ship doesn't depart until dusk, get out of the car and have some sandy fun." Clara was the one to say this as she stepped out of the car. All the Kaiser Pokémon going out as well, their eyes glued to the sandy place, they ears being caresed by the gentle sound of the waves, and the white sand was a sight to see. Taking some things like an umbrella, a bag full of towels and their bags for the day, the Kaiser got to work into getting arr their luggage into the car so ill intended passersby wouldn't feel the temptation to stick their noses in their belongings, then Dani locked the car and let it there, this time not using the Pokéball because then it would just scatter all the things they just stored within all over the place.

They got a good spot near some rocks where the breeze run calmly and refreshing. Once everything was settled, with the sun heating everything up by the moment everyone decided to go take a dip to the beach. However, Elly wasn't feeling all too well with the idea of taking a bath in the beach.

"I mean, if we do go we're going to have sand on us until we get to the ship, since there aren't any ways of cleaning ourselves up."

"And because of that are you going to endure like, thirty five degrees all day?" Luna asked. "I can stand that and even I'll end the day panting for the heat and wanting to get into a river to cool off." The Vulpix said.

"Luna your fur is nowhere close to being as thick as mine… I should probably cut it a bit all things considered, but… oh well. I'll do that when we get home." With those thoughts Elly decided to sit by the coast, though staying a bit far away from the water itself, and being careful to not roll around in the sand, even though she would very much like to.

"Why don't you lay on a towel if you don't like the sand, sweetheart?" That came from Clara, who was enjoying a sandwich and a beer sitting on a chair by the table, while almost everyone else had run to the cold water, the only ones back being Dani, Hadrim and herself. Elly smiled and grabbed herself a towel and did so, thanking the human for reminding her. Meanwhile, the others were also enjoying the water, Eric, Nox and Serge having a mock fight in the water while Lucy paced back and forth and screamed whenever they splashed water in her general direction. Zed couldn't swim because of his wounds, which saddened him, so he was just walking around, trying to get back on his feet. Finally, Jake was swimming around, training in case he had to do it in a moment of need.

"Wave incoming!" Dust voice rang over everyone as he came ashore on top of a middle sized wave, smirking at them all with mischief. Shade instantly ran to land while laughing a bit, Rad already out of the water, the Jolteon sparkling with refrained electricity, Natalie was nearest to the swallows with Emily so they were just fine, but Dark and Luna were swallowed by the Riolu's wave, before resurfacing again. The fighting trio were swallowed up by the water, and Lucy was soaked in the water from head to toe. Thankfully, neither Elly or Zed were close to the side where the water crashed, and they breathed a sigh of relief for that.

"Dust!" The Vulpix screamed to the surfer Riolu on top of his board, who was laughing his ass off as he got almost everyone with that. Said Vulpix and Zoroark swam at him, the dark fox grabbing the board so the jackal couldn't get away. "Come here you prankster!" Luna said as she got on it and pounced at the shiny, who held her paws with his, for once the Vulpix was enjoying herself more than being annoyed, at least until the Zoroark flipped the board and threw them both into the water. Lucy was about to join them, but decided not to and instead groaned and kept walking around and tipping her toes in the water.

Eric grabbed Nox and howled out as he threw him further inland, landing in the shallow part of the water and splashing Lucy yet again. "Do you honestly think you're funny?!" She shouted out of sheer annoyance, triggering laughter from the trio and chuckling from Elly, which called the Shinx's attention. "Don't laugh about this!"

"Come on, you have to try and enjoy the water! At least you can, Lucy!"

Eric rose up from the water. "You could also enjoy it if you really wanted Elly." However, she shook her head, reminding him of her decision. He groaned and sat back down on the water, sulking. "What's a little sand anyways? You can just wash it off after…"

"I think that she's just too lazy to do it." Nox pointed out, and surprisingly enough, Eric agreed.

"She does complain that it takes forever to wash it out, and just can't bother with it."

"Well… then you're gonna have to show her that it can be worth it." Serge suddenly spoke up, his words spiking the interest of both of his friends. "Let's make a bet… If you manage to drag Elly into the water and convince her to play around, we won't do any dirty jokes for a whole week." The Riolu's eyes widened, and even Jake lifted his head at the mention of the stakes.

"I think she will come willingly if she was to hear that." The comment came from Natalie, the youngest Eevee having been listening on since she wasn't doing much aside from sitting on her butt enjoying the mild warm water of where she was. "Come on there isn't a minute of a day you don't make one." She added with a smirk. "How about no chocolate dessert for her if she gets wet? Or isn't a bet supposed to be a challenge? Of course if she wins she gets your dessert as well as hers." At this she points at Eric.

"Oi oi, what's that supposed t-"

"Deal." Eric said, getting up, surprising everyone. As he walked away to his mate he turned to them and shrugged. "I wholeheartedly agree with these terms. Is this so surprising?" He reached the towel where Elly was, fur dripping, and the normal type looked up at him, confused.

"What?" He didn't say anything as he quickly lunged for her and grabbed her with a mighty hug, making her scream. "Eric, no let me go! Don't you're getting my fur wet! Eric!"

"You're coming into the water whether you like it or not! I'm getting tired of seeing you laying on the sand! And watch those claws!"

"What?! I'll watch the claws if you watch your step! **Don't get into the water! Eric! If you get me into the water you're not sleeping with me for the rest of the month!** " Her threat made the Riolu freeze in place, up to his knees in the water.

"Ooooh, snap, she pulled **that** card… She must really be desperate…" Nox whispered to everyone around them triggering some chuckling.

"Wait… are you serious Elly?"

"Yes. Yes I am. Now don't you dare walk further in and take me back to the shore!" She was panicking, and couldn't help but order the Riolu around. He didn't move however, instead turning her around so that she looked at his face. He was smiling. And he was also leaning back into the water.

" **Eric! Noo-** " Her screams were muffled by the water as she got soaked from head to toe, unable to do anything to save herself.

"Score!" Dust shouted from his board raising a fist, he and Luna had stopped wrestling to watch this unfold upon hearing Elly's screaming, as much as everyone else, the Riolu and Vulpix back on top of it so they didn't need to keep themselves floating as the others laughed a bit for the scene. Will the threat be held or not, it was fun all the same for everyone.

"Mission Passed! You have earned our respect, Eric!" Serge could barely hold his laughter while he was saying this.

"I think he also had to make a chastity vote. What a scream." Nox added.

"Just wait untill he explains the bet to her." Luna commented. The duo came out of the water and Elly started hitting Eric with soft blows, quite mad at him, and eventually just blasted him with a wave of water, which washed him over to Serge and Nox, who saw the smile on his face. They touched their chests and nodded, a signal of respect, and the Riolu got up.

"It was a bet Elly! I did, so now we won't have to endure their terrible jokes for the rest of the week!"

"I can't believe you actually did it man… wow. You do realize you're gonna go a whole month without wrestling, right?" Serge reminded the Riolu, who simply shrugged, saying that he could handle it.

"Aside for that, it's pretty damn hot and it was a pain to see you there getting toasted." Natalie said, smiling at her friend.

However, Elly clearly couldn't handle it, and was gritting her teeth when she learned that this was all just a bet… Then she smiled, as she realized that there wasn't any point in holding back and trying to keep herself dry. She immediately started unleashing barrage after barrage of psychic blasts, launching the three of them up in the air and catching Jake as well. They screamed in both surprise and glee as she joined in, except for Jake, who had a poker face during the whole thing.

* * *

After enjoying a couple hours of splashing and some water games, little by little they went back to their spot, laying down on their towels not minding much the water on their fur, just getting comfy. However, Dust picked up some sandwiches and one big towel and invited Emily to go with him. The two went somewhat away from the others, the Riolu wanting to be alone with his mate and happy she had agreed to go with him. Once a nice distance away, Dust set the towel down for them and sat down after her. He was thankful that Clara and Daniel had used transparent paper to cover the sandwiches, so he could easily pick up a vegetarian one for her.

"Why are we away from the others?" She asked as he handled her her food, already open, and took a bite of it.

"Well… I… I wanted us to spend some alone time." He answered, scratching the back of his head. "It's… not a problem, right?"

She smiled at him. "I'm okay with it."

Then an awkward silence got hold of them, Dust had thought about what he wanted to do, but not about what to talk about. ' _Damnit! Think something come on!_ ' He thought for a bit, not knowing how to start a conversation.

"Hey. What is that stone on your arm?" She asked all of a sudden.

He looked at his armlet for a moment and then at her. "This? It's an Everstone." He said.

"Ever stone?" She asked. "What is that?"

He was surprised that she didn't know and took a moment to answer. "Well.. It is a special stone that prevents Pokémon from evolving." He said.

"Prevent evolution? Why would you want that?"

"Well. There are various reasons. Some Pokémon are afraid that after evolving they change too much, others just don't like to change. Me… Well In my case I'm waiting for a good moment. I can only Evolve once and I would like all the family to see it, but I haven't found the moment to take it off and let it happen." He said with a warm smile.

"You had a lot of moments at that place we just left today."

That felt to him like a hard hit. He knew he had let pass a lot of moments there, but it just didn't feel right to do it out of the blue. "I… I know but…" He sighed not knowing why he let those chances pass. She just shrugged and leant to him, nuzzling him a bit.

"I'm sure you'll find the moment." She said. "And I wanna be there and see it!" She added with a smile that made him smile as well, getting an arm around her.

"Heh. Of course you will!" He said smiling and hugging her close, then finally getting a bite of his own food. "What about you? Have you thought about what you want to be?"

She shrugged. "I Don't know. Haven't thought about it. And I'm in no hurry for it to happen." was her answer. "Maybe I'll be a big Eevee. Just like Elly!"

He chuckled for that, and gave a kiss to her forehead that made her purr, after that the both of them enjoyed their lunch alone. "Whatever you wanna be, Em." He said to her.

After lunch was done, they went back with the others, some were playing some card games while the others were just being lazy bums, sand drying on their paws, that they kept out of their towels. Luca was napping calmly, Hadrim curled up by her side but awake, his fur wet, indicating he had taken a dip himself while they were away. And the few that were missing were back at the water having fun. Dust for once decided to stay calm, laid down his towel again and he and Emily laid down to relax themselves.

* * *

The hours went by quickly, everyone alternating between having fun at the water, playing card games or simply resting a bit. At one point in the afternoon, Natalie was getting herself dry while looking at the others having fun, mostly looking at Radius and her brother. She had made up her mind, now she just needed to know how to tell it to them.

"Should I go for it and just… say it?" She asked to no one in particular, the Eevee sighing, her eyes on the two males and a smile coming to her when she looked at the orange Jolteon. In all the time she's been there she's grown to know him like a brother, and those things were what made her feel the so called butterflies in her stomach. But then she thought on Dark, not knowing what her brother had planned for the future.

No one answered her, more so because almost anyone knew what she was talking about. She stood there for a bit more, thinking about it, worrying about what would happen, if Radius would accept her, if Dark would support her. In the end, when she saw the two males coming back she decided it was time so she stood up and walked towards them. The normally warm sand felt slightly hotter to her as she felt her paws really cold. She went to them and they stopped in front of her.

"Nat?" Dark asked.

"Can the three of us talk for a moment?" She asked.

Zoroark and Jolteon looked at each other, then nodded to her, and she took them to a side, the bigger part of the beach and their spot being out of the view, granting them some privacy. "What's wrong?" Radius asked.

"Nothing, Rad. I just want to… talk about something."

"Well. Go on, sis."

"Ok. First things first." She said and breathed in deep. "We've known each other for a while, right, Rad?" He didn't have time to answer, yet he opened his mouth to do it, confused as to where this was going. "I've… seen what you've done for everyone this time. When your mother was in bed you helped take care of her, when Shade got trapped that day under the sink and we have to tear one door off. When I got ill and needed care and company." She said, beating around the bush. "What I want to say is, I've seen that you are a caring person" He rose a brow. "I mean, Pokémon, a caring Pokémon, yes." She said, Dark could tell she was really nervous and he knelt down to her side.

"Hey. Calm down. Breath in deep, relax." He said as he silenced her, a paw on her shoulders, and she sighed.

"Thank you." She said. "Radius. I like you." She finally found the courage to say it, and a bright blush came to her face as he stood there stunned. "I've been feeling like this for a while. You are caring and are always there, good or bad, for everyone. Even when you yourself are in a bad mood and don't want to be with anyone you end up accepting company." She went on, her eyes going to the sand as she couldn't hold his gaze, Dark had his eyes wide open, for now only a witness of this. "I like you, Radius. I want to be with you from now on. I want to stay with you, by your side. Good or bad. Happy or sad. I…" Here she grew nervous again, trying to look at his face. "I want to be your mate, Rad. If… If you will be mine." She finally said.

The Jolteon was completely out of it. He was completely blocked, not knowing what to say, his brain in overload of information since the moment she said she likes him. She just stood there, looking at him, waiting for him to answer her, and the longer he stood silent, the more she feared she just screwed it all.

"Woah, Nat." He finally found his voice again, looking around, shaking his head a bit and blushing as well. "I… I don't know what to say… I mean…"

"I just want an answer, please. You don't need some pretty monologue or words, just… tell me." She said, yet he did something else entirely. The Jolteon, with a warm smile and his ears lowered as well as his wole fur smooth, approached her, and lift her face so she looked at him, looking into her emerald eyes with his brown ones.

"Natalie, I like you as well." He made a pause, thinking on how to say the next thing. "And I'll be really happy to be your mate. If you'll be mine." He repeated her words and her beaming smile was all the answer he needed. Both of them hugged each other the only way a quadruped being can. The onyx on her forehead starting to show a glow.

"Well. I think it is clear what you want to tell me, sis." Dark said, smiling himself. "You don't want to go back, you want to stay here, stay a Pokémon and make your life with Radius." He said, and she nodded, sitting and now waiting for his answer. He sighed with the same smile. "I hope you are happy then." He said. "I won't stop you, Nat. Stay here, stay where your heart tells you to stay." He said, getting somewhat poetic, then he looked at the Jolteon. "You take care of her, ok? If you break her heart I'll per-" He couldn't end the phrase as Natalie jumped at his arms and hugged him, her tail wagging as she was crying in sheer happiness.

"Thank you, brother. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She said and repeated it a lot while they hugged tightly.

Her crush has accepted her and was now her mate, and her brother supported her on her decision. It was all she could ask for. She couldn't be any more happy at the moment. During the hug, the gem on her forehead glowed brighter and brighter, giving quite a flash in a moment, leaving the Eevee covered in a black light that looked more like a shadow, on the arms of the Zoroark. Then her shape shifted, turning into a black oval similar to her gem. After that, the oval slowly cracked open, the falling pieces disappearing and little by little they could see a new shape, slightly bigger, and the thin and forked tail was indication enough. When the black light was again but the glow of her onyx, what stood hugging the Zoroark was an Espeon, slightly smaller than Radius, lilac fur all over her body, yet the tip of her paws were a gentle shade of gray, as well as the underside of her body. When she opened her eyes, that emerald green was more intense than ever.

"Thank you, brother." She said once again, and he smiled.

"Hey. Whatever makes you happy." He said as he then let her down, he held back, not wanting to break the moment. Once she was back down, Rad nuzzled her again and she purred, nuzzling him back, both exchanging some muzzle licks and a look while the Zoroark just went back towards their spot. Once the two lovers turned around, Natalie could swear she saw someone's head hiding behind the rocks. Seems like their private talk wasn't **that** private.

She didn't see only one pokémon though, but rather the entirety of Team Star was hiding behind moderately sized rocks, Serge standing behind a particularly large one because of his generous size. Everyone but Lucy and Jake were feeling emotional too, with Eric and Elly standing really close to eachother, while Zed was edging as close as possible to Lucy. The Shinx however, was only smiling, and they could only guess that she was happe for the couple, while Jake was constantly nodding at their words and vows. And as them, their family was as well, as Dark arrived, he shrugged at them all, there was nothing to say nor need to, Dust and Emily were glued to each other, Hadrim sitting on Luca's lap with the Lucario's head on top of his; Shade had one big grin on her own muzzle, her eyes trailing towards someone, and lastly Luna, who went to lay down herself, happy for her friend.

After this entire scene and everyone hurrying to place to make it seem as if they didn't see anything when Natalie and Radius came back, also some words of congratulations for her evolving into what she wanted to be, the Kaiser and Team Star enjoyed their last hours of vacations, before they packed up. While some helped tie their luggage back to the car's ceiling others helped brushing the sand out of their fur with their towels, it was hard, more so on the thickets of furs, until they were done and ready to go back, not a single grain of sand in their fur, courtesy of a quick yet weak psychic blast that blew it all off their fur, and for the sand that was already dried off.

The trip to the ship was calm, the radio of the car playing at an agreeable volume some calm music. The humans and Pokémon calmly chit chatting, yet one by one, they started falling asleep, until the only one that remained awake was Daniel, (if you want anyone else to be awake go ahead) who drove 'til they reached the port and into the place, taking a place in the lain to get on the ship, finally allowing himself to close his eyes and rest a bit as they still had two hours before they had to board the ship.

Once it was time, everyone was woken up by one of the workers. Which made some react with a bit of grumpiness upon being so roughly awoken. "Calm down." Came Ichiro's sleepy voice, the lot of the Kayser Pokémon stopping their grumblings and growlings and settling hearing the human. "Once we get inside we'll get a nice spot and sleep the whole night's trip. "He added yawning a bit while settling himself rightfully on the car.

Of course, when they were on board and accommodated, Clara left the remaining food for the day on top of the table for whomever wanted to have dinner and once again, little by little, they all fell asleep, even Dark, the Zoroark for once in a long time not needing his medicine to sleep, only this time he was sleeping alone, since Nat was snuggling up to Radius, while Shade was on Ichiro's lap and Luna by the human's side, Dust and Emily were on their own on the couch and Hadrim had curled on top of Luca's belly, all the Pokémon sleeping peacefully after such a fun day. Ichiro snoring lightly sleeping sitting and slightly reclined back, legs raised and with a blanket. The three humans had a blanket each for the night.

Everyone from Team Star simply scattered themselves across the room and either slept or talked until tiredness took them away once more, joining their comrades. Morning came, and with it, the island where they had been living for the past half a year.

"Man… time sure flies by. Feels like it was yesterday when we got here, now we're back to the middle of summer, when we got here in winter… almost seven months." Eric spoke out loud, inviting his friends to comment on the matter.

"Yeah… And I don't know about you, but this world's got its appeal. I mean, sure, the air smells like trash, the noises are horrible and you barely get any good sleep, and the roads are just unbearable under your feet… But I think it's a pretty interesting world." Serge was the first to answer, moving his wings and doing his morning recovery exercises. Soon enough he'd probably be able to fly again.

"You're saying that because you didn't have the need to walk around and see everything from up high. I have a different opinion: I hate the buildings, and I hate the roads. It's all so organized and lifeless, so symmetrical… It's somewhat terrifying too, like a machine was doing all of this." Lucy's input was much more somber than the others, but nonetheless a valid opinion.

"While I do agree with the cold comment and the symmetricality of it all, I do believe this is just the natural evolution. Space is limited when such a massive population is achieved, hence why they have built those skyscrapers, houses stacked on top of other houses. It's efficient, and with scarce resources, that is the only solution for such a dire problem like overpopulation. I just hope that we, ourselves, don't face this problem." The ice type didn't earn himself any immediate remarks, though eventually Elly smiled and looked at Nox.

"Well, with people like Nox and Serge, I'm pretty sure that could happen eventually." They looked at the Eevee, offended, but they couldn't respond with anything witty, since she was right, so Nox could only laugh.

"Oh, look who's talking, the other half of the sappiest couple I've ever seen. Don't give me that look, you know I'm right!" This triggered more laughed and a blush from Eric.

The Kaiser gave them their space, scattered in a slightly wider circle around the car as they stretched their legs after that night on the ship's couch and the incoming trip back home. Traveling was tiring, whether one managed to sleep or not. While the humans had some of the previous day's food for breakfast, the Pokémon where at their things, not wandering that far from the car. The couples of the family having some alone time for chatting and allowing themselves to get a bit more lovely with each other. A couple minutes after, Clara called them all so they could get on the move.

"You know? Hadrim could teleport all us back home." Ichiro commented with a sided smile.

"Yeah I could. I could also get a month worth of a headache too for that." The Espeon answered, headbutting the boy's leg as he passed by his side, the human chuckling a bit.

"You've waited all of yesterday. A couple more hours won't hurt you now before you can get into your online games." Luca teased back to the boy, who just stuck his tongue out at her, most of the Kaiser either giggling or plain smiling. This time Luna sat on Ichiro's lap, sharing the spot with Shade, while the rest got on their usual places.

Once everyone was on the car, they started to move, Dani not lasting on taking the road towards home by taking the highway the moment they came out of Ebony Port.

* * *

The drive was uneventful mostly, the only noise being the car's radio and engine, and the chit chatting of everyone inside. It went like that until Dani saw something. It looked like someone had gone out of luck and had to take their van out of the road to check it. And one of this persons was making signals to call for help. The human slowed to a stop and parked besides the road, confusing most of the Team Star members, who didn't know that these cars could break down. The one calling their attention walked towards them and leaned on the car.

"Thank you for stopping, good sir. Might we have your help?" The man asked, sounding desperate.

"Sure. What is it?" Dani asked.

"Seems our engine had run out of battery. Keep telling those idiots to change the damn thing but of course no one listens to the warnings."

Daniel nodded and turned his car around to face the van and approached it so the cables could reach. Then unlocked the bonnet of his car, and got out to lift it. Once the wires were set he went back inside. "Thank you so much for your help, sir, it shouldn't take long."

As Dani stepped on the accelerator, a sharp noise was heard, extremely high pitched, making everyone visibly cringe and cover their ears, distracting them for a bit, and Lucy shook and writhed in pain, feeling the EMP triggering and disabling all electronic devices, the current hurting her. While they were distracted, the men put on gas masks and one of them pulled out a long tube, pulling the pin and throwing it inside the car. A green gas was released and completely filled the car itself, making them cough violently as they tried to get out, their eyes tearing up while they got ready to fight back… but their strength was quickly leaving their bodies, eyelids weighting down and muscles sore and tired. Eventually, sleep took them over, leaving them defenseless, and everything blacked out for everyone.

Serge was unaware of how much time passed, but he recovered quickly. Extremely quickly. Whether it was because of his own biology or his tendency to sleep a lot, he wasn't sure, but he was the only one to wake up. The gas was long gone, having filtered through the open doors, and he was completely alone in the back of the car, his eyes fluttering open as he heard voices from outside.

"Just… pickup the smaller ones… and the Zoroark too, we need a bigger specimen… leave the humans and the Pidgeot in there and burn it down. Make it look like a car crash…" Those words flared up the Pidgeot. Remembering his last position, and opening his eyes, the light blinding him slightly, he scrambled out of the car and immediately stared at the humans, and saw it: his friends, everyone, were in cages, still asleep, and the humans were tossing them around and putting them into the back of the van, throwing Dark's heavy weight into the van alongside Elly, as if they were lifeless ragdolls, with no care.

" **You mother fuckers!** " His voice was one of pure anger, and his shouting alerted them, but could barely react before he lunged at them, ignoring the slight pain on his chest as he dashed to the nearest human and slashed his wing, making a nasty cut across his chest and pushing him back, then pecking his chest and toppling him in pain. His right wing was glowing, strange marks under the feathers starting to reveal themselves. None of them were conscious: he could let loose.

The green lines under the feathers glowed more intensely as he swung his wing, a strong gust of wind blowing from behind him and blowing all of them away, toppling all of the cages on the ground and surprising the humans. One of them pulled out a gun and aimed, pulling the trigger and firing immediately. But when he did Serge was no longer there, a sharp noise, like something cutting through the wind coming from his left. The gun's canon was sliced in half, and then a vicious peck almost ripped out his ear, followed by two slashes to his side and legs, making him lose his balance. There were only three more humans, but they were too shocked to properly respond. Two of them dashed to the front of the car after carelessly throwing a Zoroark into the back of the van, while the last grabbed two more cages: one with a blue furred Riolu and the other with a newly evolved Espeon.

"Turn it on! Go go go!" One of the humans was panicking extremely badly, and the other stepped on the gas, the tires screeching as Serge tried to take off after them, his chest burning up from the pain. The last one got on through the back, joining the unconscious pokémon and pulled out a gun of his own, pointing it menacingly at the Pidgeot, who was ready to slice him into bits, the wind picking up strength again as it coiled and twisted around his body. However, he didn't shoot at him, but at the puddle of gasoline that they had spread across the entire car, lighting it up and threatening to burn down the entire thing and make it blow up, the humans and Luca, who were still inside, unconscious.

Serge glanced between the two, panicking, and the last thing he saw from that human was him smiling slyly as he reached up and brought down the iron curtain, closing the van as it sped down the road and out of view. He swore loudly and turned to the fire, flapping his wings as much as he could, intense gusts of wind trying to blow out the fire, but the liquid was too combustible, and it only sped up the process… But that was when he looked at the top of the car and saw their luggage, tied down to the top with steel chains and secured. He stood still and focused… his wing barely blinked as the chains were cut and the steel and industrially made suitcases toppled down on the relatively small fire, gasoline splashing everywhere but effectively ending the spark itself before it reached the car.

The last few drops of fire he put out himself, smacking it with his feet and throwing dirt on it, and once he was sure it was all over, only then did he sit down. His heart was beating way too fast, fearing he might just have a heart attack, his head pounding and threatening to make him faint again, and his wings trembling as the adrenaline vanished as quickly as it came, calming down. The sharp scent of the gasoline the bastards had spread invaded his nostrils, making him gag, and decided to grab all of those inside the car and put them close to the cages, while he walked over to the incapacitated humans, still bleeding… but not writhing anymore.

Once he was close though, he saw why they weren't moving anymore: their mouths were foaming, heads and limbs twitching, having died because of the poison they had willingly swallowed once they were incapacitated and left behind by their companions. With two corpses and a pile of unconscious pokémon and humans, the only thing Serge could do was grab his head and look down at the floor, eyes bloodshot and trembling, unable to stop thinking about those who he hadn't been able to save: Eric, Elly, Dark, Radius, Natalie and Shade weren't in those cages.

They had been kidnapped.


	20. Chapter 19 - Humanity's Sin

**Chapter 19**

 **Humanity's Sin**

"You've got to be kidding me!" Nox's howls echoed in the house as the door opened, everyone rushing in, with Jake going straight to the television to turn on the news. Sure enough, there it was, the first piece of news: kidnappings all over the island.

"They seem to have coordinated themselves and struck at multiple points simultaneously… and in other islands too." The ice type commented, everyone walking over to the TV to keep watching.

"... they seem to be isolated cases, and the regional police is currently investigating the events. There is no need to panic, for the authorities are…"

"Doing **absolutely fucking nothing!** " Serge came into the house, barely able to stand on his legs, being helped by the Kaisers as he stumbled over to the couch, panting. Zed rushed over as best he could, telling him to not overexert himself. "It took them long enough to get there, and by then those fuckers were long gone! Bastards! I'll find them and cut them to tiny strips, you hear me?! I'll fucking…" He bit his tongue down hard and kicked the table opposite of him, grabbing his head and sulking.

The Kaiser didn't answer, Ichiro and Luca leaving Serge on the couch before the human immediately went to his room, a door slamming closed could be heard. Luca looked at the stairs while Dust was just looking at the floor. Hadrim took upon himself to get the luggage into the house while the humans just went inside and to a room where they could be alone, as well as Ichiro, closing their door. No one took care of the bags and suitcases once they were inside the house and the espeon just went to his mate and nuzzled her, while she sat down on a corner and hid her face.

Dust and Emily were with the others watching the news. The Riolu couldn't stand it, growling he punched the wardrobe he had to his left with enough force to crack the door. He was seething in rage but at the same time trying to hold the blazing rage that boiled him and it was only a matter of time before he exploded. Yet at the same time his eyes were teary and the worry ate him from the inside, making it even harder to refrain. Emily was looking at him with a worried expression, wondering if she should say something or not, until she poked his arm gently and he looked at her. The shiny let out a small sigh and put his forehead on hers. It wasn't hard to understand him, four members of his family and two friends had been abducted, and even knowing it wasn't his fault not being up and helping, it was impossible to not feel frustrated. The shiny could only imagine how the bird must be since he managed to do something.

Lastly, Luna was keeping herself away from everything and everyone, the Vulpix was silent as a tomb, but she was releasing such a strong heat from her body that it would set ablaze a dead and dry branch, even now she was leaving black pawprints on the floor as she walked to and fro, looking at the news and saving her words and reactions for herself. Everyone on the Kaiser family had closed up entirely to anything with what had happened. And to top it all, they could only wait and hope.

"I can't believe it happened to us…" Lucy was in shock. It was extremely unlike her, but it had happened so suddenly she still couldn't process it, her eyes glancing around nervously, waiting for Elly to step out from around the corner like she always did and greet her so they could talk about whatever… But every time she was met with the same sight: the grimly lit armchair between that hallway and the place where she was standing. "I don't get it… why us?"

"Random chance. The large amount of pokémon in the car must have attracted the attention of some search party, thus moving them to our route. They laid out the trap perfectly…" His claws had already unsheathed minutes ago, rubbing against the couch's fabric, inches away from ripping right through it. "How did I not see it…"

"It always happens on the news, they're always talking about this shit… and you never expect it to happen to you." No one said anything after the Houndour's comment.

"They say that kind people are idiots." Hadrim found his voice after a bit of time. "The trap was set for anyone that would stop to help… And we were the ones."

"They exploited our kindness… Despicable…" The small black type breathed in, keeping himself from saying anything else.

"They're a blemish to this world… They shall pay."

"Hell yeah they will!" Serge got back up all of a sudden. "We're going to fucking go find them right now, and when we do we're going to tear those bastards a fucking new one! You hear me?! And we're going to get them! We're going to get them all back! Without a fucking scratch! Not a hair of missing fur on them! Not a…" Halfway through that speech the Pidgeot fell down and started sobbing, unable to hold the shameful tears back as he stared at his still wounded chest, slamming his wings on the carpet and howling in rage at how utterly useless he was. A feeling that Zed felt as well, curled up in a ball. Serge was carried away by the more capable pokémon of the house and up to the bed to rest up, shouting and kicking the whole way in frustration.

"We should call the police, but…" Luca was the one to talk.

"If we did, those leeches known as "the media" would get their filthy hands on it, and would make a story on the news or any of those tabloids, and if that were to happen, **it** would come to finish us off at our weakest moment. And even if we explicitly told them to not do so, there would be risk of it leaking to the public anyways, thus putting all of us in danger without knowing it."

"And that not taking into account the actual danger we are talking about." Dust growled out.

"So basically we're fucked. From every single goddamn conceivable angle. We're fucked." Nox's usually pretentious and lively tone was now somber.

"Unfortunately so…" Jake's eyes were glued to the television, intending to watch the news until they finished, and after that planned to get on the computer and look for more information himself. "The only thing we can do is wait."

It won't be an easy wait. The Kaiser Pokémon had an instinct to refrain overflowing emotional fits, at the same time, the human boy had to cope with bottled up emotions himself, lest he wanted to end away from the house for a time and worry his family even more.

* * *

Dark rammed into the door one more time, his shoulder hurt for the fourth ramming he had done but the door was sturdy for being from a cage. The Zoroark had tried everything, the first thing being trying to scratch it, then trying to summon his night slash to cut it open but that only gained him a tighter collar that let him without being able to breath for enough time to bring him to his knees before it expanded again to allow him to cough air back into his lungs. "Damnit!" He coughed out.

"I told you, pup. It's useless." Said a voice from his side, one he didn't knew at all, by the sound it came from one from the Char-lizard line, but that was the only thing he could make up from it.

"Fuck you. I'm not giving up!" Dark answered.

"Heh. The last that said that ended up choking to death and in our plates, kid, suit yourself."

The thought made Dark feel sick for a moment but he kept trying to break the lock or the hinges of the door, without success.

After some more minutes, a man came into the room, dragging a little Espeon by the tail before lifting her up. The moment Dark saw the onix on her forehead he knew who he was and he launched forwards with a roar, slamming into the door and managing to make his cage shake. "You bastard! What have you done to her!?" The human simply ignored him and put the Espeon into the cage on top of his. Dark wished the holes on the door where bigger so he could extend his arm, grab the man and slash his face with his claws but he could only hit the door for naught.

In the same room, Radius had woken up because of the Zoroark's noise and now watched as the human put her in a cage near his. When the man left he immediately tried to get to her, crawling on his small space. "Nat?" He called. "Nat. Natalie!" He kept on, she didn't answer, but she was awake. Even then, her eyes seemed lost somewhere and she was drooling. The Jolteon kept calling her, trying to wake her up from her trance, the only response he got was a weak moan as she breathed.

"Heh. Seems like they found another specimen for their 'medicine'." The fire lizard commented.

None of the males calling her wanted to believe what he was saying, but it seemed to be like it. Radius just looked down, not being able to hold back tears as Dark growled, trying to contain himself, only to let out another roar of frustration and start banging with all his strength at the door and walls of his cage. But then he looked around, same as Radius.

"Where's Shade!?" Radius asked, trying to stand up and hitting his shoulders and head on the upper part of his cage.

On another part, Shade was cowering on a corner, scared and whimpering silently as she cried. She had been put in a room with a bunch of other Eevee. All of them were into their cages, big enough to accommodate an adult Eeveelution without much problem, yet with the bars close enough that they couldn't escape at all. She didn't know what was happening. She kept telling herself that this was a nightmare, that she'll wake up and she'll be back in the car already parked at home and ready to go to sleep with her family.

If only that was true. The sounds were too clear for it to be a dream, she was stuck there. Meanwhile, the humans kept getting more cages with other Eevee inside them into the room.

* * *

The first thing Elly noticed as the stupor of the sleeping gas wafted away were the voices and sounds around her: mechanical noises, metal clanging together, moans and groans, even a roar of clear pain could be heard. Voices whispered and shouted around her, and she finally woke up and started looking around, her sight at first blurry, but then cleared up slowly and allowed her to recognize her surroundings: she was caged, to put it simply, she was stuffed in a small steel cage, barely big enough to fit her length and bumping her head against the top because of her considerable size. She pushed up against it and kept shaking and smashing against the iron bars, trying to break free. It was useless however, so she instead opted to analyze her surroundings further.

She seemed to be up on a shelf, the third one from the ground, which was made out of clean white slates, which made her shift around uncomfortably, the appearance reminiscent to that of those pokécenters they dreaded so much. What really caught her attention wasn't that though, or the small tubes filled with what seemed to be multicolored chips and murky water, but it was the fact that the entire place was littered with rows and rows **and rows** of pokémon also stuck in cages. Small pokémon, some of them stuffed in infinitely tiny spaces, choking under their own breath.

She couldn't bare to stare at their faces: faces of utter defeat and despair, some that were just staring into infinity, their gazes lost in whatever traumatic event had shut them off like that, or worse even, staring at hollow cages and ceasing their breathing for long periods of time, as if awaiting for the sympathetic release of death. Her eyes frantically darted around, and she thanked whatever deity had placed Eric in the cage just to her left when she saw him, stuffed into a cage of a similar size.

She called him by name, and it took him a second to look up and face her, but his face beamed when he did so. "Elly!" He crashed against the bars and tried to bend them, but they proved to be too strong for him at the moment, perhaps because he had just woken up. He reached for her paw, and she reached out too, grabbing his. "Thank god you're alright… What happened?"

"I don't know, we were waiting in the car, then gas came and the next moment I fell asleep… And now we're in this horrible place." Eric looked around when she said this, noticing the same things and more, his eyes widening.

"This looks awfully familiar to those labs they found under that one park… you don't think?" There was slight panic in their eyes, but they were unfortunately confirmed when they both stared up at their ears. Hanging from the Eevee's right ear was a small tag, a single drop of blood and a tuft of bloodied fur around the hole that it had looped for, with the numbers and letters " **7ec0ee** ", while Eric's spelled out " **e5e5e5** ".

"Wh- what are those?" Her voice trembled in that single moment as they realized that their fates were most likely sealed, though they had little time to process what was happening as sirens blared, making all the pokémon in the room either wake up, cover their ears or look at the hallway and standing straight like a domesticated dog. Once the noises ended and the couple uncovered their ears, they saw several humans going down the hallway, looking at the cages expectantly. Eric and Elly growled and glared at them, more specifically at the one who seemed to lead the group: one of short stature, with a plate with the words "Section Director" and an electronic table in his hands. As he passed the cages he looked at the pokémon inside and either pressed the pad or passed by.

Once he reached the defying duo, a smile crept up on his face, and tapped his pad twice. After he went through the room looking at their shelves he went back the same way, checking the other shelves, and when he reached the entrance he showed the pad to the other scientists. "Bring them to Room 101 for the intelligence test. And be quick about it."

With that, he disappeared through the door and left the scientists there to gather their test subjects, amongst the which were the leaders of Team Star Their cages were lifted off the shelves without any care, making them bump against each tother and the bars, making them yelp in pain.

"Hey, where are you taking us?!" Eric shouted, punching the bars. However, the scientist wasn't wearing a translator, albeit he did see the Riolu punching his prison, and shook the cage violently, dizzying and hurting him further, albeit he stopped talking for the time being.

"Damn mutts… why do we even bother doing intelligence tests on these things? They're just animals." He looked at his nearest co-worker, who shrugged.

"Protocol I guess. Besides, we don't want any retarded ones or with birth defects for the other experiments, so you could consider this some sort of selection process." He was holding two more cages, one with a Buneary, the other with a gray Meowth. They were all carried away from that hallway like room, revealing that it wasn't a room, but rather just a storage area, and above it was a walkway that crossed what seemed to be an entire warehouse. There wasn't anything resembling a window at their level, but further up, almost at the top, they could see windows with grass up against them. They were definitely underground, and the sun was setting… Just how long had they been asleep?

The rows of caged pokémon didn't seem to end as they crossed from compartment to compartment, the same blinding lights shining down on them, staring at tired and lifeless faces as they kept going. Finally they got out of the storage area, spotting two heavily armed guards positioned besides the steel door that shut down behind them. They were taken to another room further away, and once inside the scientists left the cages on the ground and left the room.

There was a loud beep noise, and the cage's doors opened at the same time armed guards came in, pointing their rifles at them menacingly, but not opening fire, only watching them.

"Initiating the first part." Panels in the floor opened and a set of plastic shapes and gray box rose up. The box had shapes identical to those of the pieces, and Elly immediately guessed what the test's objective was. The voice over the speakers clarified it, however. "You must fit the pieces into their appropriate slots. Resistance will be met with death." With that single statement the voice disappeared. Not a single pokémon dared do anything for a long while, before the gray Meowth leaned forward and started fitting the pieces into their slots. Everyone stared at them silently, and some started following their example, completing the puzzle with ease, while others faked having trouble or didn't do anything, simply playing around with the pieces like dumb animals: three completely different ways to approach the situation.

And no one knew which would end with them dead or alive.

"We should at least try to finish it… otherwise they might try to get rid of us." Eric whispered to her, looking at the Buneary, who was slowly doing the puzzle. She felt offended that she had to do this, but decided to do it anyways, using her paws so as to not tip them off to her psychic powers. If she did, she would most likely draw their attention… instead she'd save that for her trump card. The Riolu finished puzzle slowly, doing so after his mate did, being second to last to the Buneary. The box was then dragged down, and more guards came in, and grabbed the pokémon that had finished the puzzle first, amongst the which was the gray Meowth, who screamed and kicked in horror. As the humans passed by, both of them visibly ducked away, scared that one of those leathery hands would reach down, grab them by the scruff of the neck and drag them to another room to do… whatever it was they did there. And never see the other ever again.

Their hands drew closer without them noticing until they were holding paws until the humans left the room with all the pokémon that had finished in the first fifteen seconds and those that hadn't bothered to fill the holes. A third of the initial pokémon remained, and they were presented with another challenge of the same type. Once again, they repeated the puzzle, this time with different shapes, and Elly finished once more around the same time, but filled in all holes. Eric hadn't noticed, and tried to remove one of the pieces before it was too late.

"Don't! You'll tip them off like that!" His shouts arrived too late, as her box sunk back into the ground extremely quickly, leaving both of them to stare at the other in distress. Eric grabbed his pieces and shifted them around, putting two in but leaving the other two out. Once time ran out everything was taken away, and more guards came in. They walked past Eric, and stopped right where the brown fox was… then reached for the Buneary's ears, who had once again finished last, and dragged her away as she screamed and cried. She looked at the duo, reaching out to them and crying for help… and was silenced once she was taken out of the room.

Only five pokémon out of the initial twenty four remained.

"Please return to your cages. You will return to your hallways shortly. Any pokémon outside of their cages will be shot on sight. Do not enter the same cage along your companions. Any two pokémon inside the same cage will be shot. Thank you for your cooperation." All the pokémon looked at their companions, some trembling, some lifelessly staring at their barred portable cells as they walked in again. The leaders of Team Star did just that, seeing as they had no way of getting out of that situation alive, and could only stare at all the empty cages in dismay.

The scientists returned and carried everything, empty and filled cages, and returned the filled ones to the hallway. On the way, Elly wondered in fear just how many pokémon had been in that same cage before her… and had been taken away like the others. As they returned to their hallway they started hearing drilling and mechanical noises coming from another room to their left. They glanced there, and saw metal trays with cloths covering malformed shapes… She screamed when she saw that gray Meowth's paw coated in crimson blood.

They rattled her cage to shut her up immediately, and finally entered the hallway and left the duo back in the spots they had found them. She was hyper ventilating, realizing just how close they had been of sharing the same fate. "This… this is insane… How can they do this to pokémon?! It's almost as if we're…"

"Animals to them." Eric finished, sitting in his cage and looking at the bars. "We're just dumb animals to them, you heard those guys… I knew there were evil humans, just as there are good ones. But… this?" He looked around, staring back at those lifeless eyes that were looking at him, just for the mere fact that he was making noise. "This is beyond evil. This is… repulsive." Some of those pokémon staring at him smiled. He'd break in. He'd realize the severity of their situation and give in to despair. Just like they had.

Elly whined and looked at the ground, unable to get those images out of her head, and reached to take a sip from the water…

"Don't." A sliver of a voice from the right stopped her, and to her right she saw a famelic Mime Jr. leaning against the opposite end of the cage that the tubes were. Both of them were full of water and food, and yet… he looked as if he hadn't eaten anything in weeks. "They put stuff in the tubes… to make you forget… They make you feel good about this. It breaks you, and they take you away and you're never heard of again and then you go down to the hole and you disappear and then you scream, and scream…" His eyes were wide open, with dark bags underneath, only making the situation more daunting as the Eevee backed away and reached for Eric's paw in the other cage. If there was any solace to be found in that hell, it was the fact that when they had put down the cages, they had put theirs closer than before.

* * *

It's been some hours since they had brought Natalie to the room. The effects of the drug were wearing off by then and she was again a bit of herself, if only the few hallucinations weren't as pretty as to make her talk to no one and point at nothing in front of her eyes. The sight and sound themselves were a cruel torture for both Dark and Radius, who just didn't say anything whenever she lost track of conversation because of some blue dragonfly that has posed on her nose. "Damned bastards… If I could get out of here!" Dark growled, his arms and paws hurt as hell, his cage covered in scratches but not a single bump has been done.

However, before any other could say nothing. The door to their room opened and a white goldack shoved in a Charmeleon, the Charmeleon that was telling them to give up and had commented about Natalie being drugged, back into his cage by showering him with water attacks. "I'm going in damnit! Stop the shower you damned white freak!" the fire type said, keeping his tail out of the water's reach, even when the duck Pokémon augmented the pressure to shove him in against the wall all the way until he closed the door of it. Then it left the room. Few minutes after a scientist came back, with a cage containing a soaking wet Vaporeon and left it to the side over some other cages, then approached and reached for Rad's. Once again, Dark tried to scare him away, but the man didn't even flinch, and instead pushed a button on the side of the cage, immediately a surge of electricity shocked the Zoroark, who didn't expect it and wasn't prepared to counter the current. The shock lasted enough for the scientist to pick up Radius' cage and head to the door while Natalie tried to reach for him or use her powers to stop the human, but the drugs had her still unexplored psychic powers disabled.

The scientist carried Rad through a hallway after taking him out of the room. For the Jolteon the trip was agonizingly slow, only listening to the man's steps but he was too scared to even make a sound or move. After a seemingly endless walk, the man got into a room, opened the cage and forced the Jolteon out, quickly closing the door after to prevent him from escaping. The Jolteon could hear the lock being secured and a few more noises. His fur was spiked up after a few seconds, and he could feel that the air had a bit of static charge. He looked around, trying to see anything, he just saw another electric type, a Manectric. "Hey, what's going on here, what are this humans doing?" Rad asked the other, who just tensed up, arcs of electricity jumping around his body as he tried but couldn't get himself to move. The Jolteon backed away, eyes wide open.

"T-they…" The other tried to talk, being a female. "They're… going to… shock you…" She said. "Until… you can't… get more… electricity… within you!" After that, she let loose a bit of charge, roaring in pain as the electricity was freed but with the air so charged it only served to charge her more and thus shock her into oblivion… literally. As the shocking lasted, she couldn't stand it and collapsed, her breathing ragged and short. an instant after, she disappeared with the tell tale light of a teleport. Before Rad could even finish processing he was alone, the room's charge rose. He felt the electricity tingle for now, as his body was getting it. At the same time he was trying to find a way to get out of there before the same happened to him.

For several minutes he was shocked without reaction about it. Until the shocking stopped and he looked around and at himself. Electricity jumped on his needle like fur but he didn't feel pain. Only then did he notice a window on the highest part of one of the walls of the room, as if it was in an upper level of that place, an Alakazam was looking at him as did some scientists, their faces showing curiosity and surprise. "You get me out of here! Let me and my friends go!" The Jolteon immediately growled and barked. Sending a jolt of electricity towards it, along with some charged hairs. Yet the electric attack was sucked into a lightning rod on the ceiling and the needles just bounced off the crystal. Just an instant later, more electricity filled the room. It took a couple minutes, but Rad started feeling weird. Each move he made caused him pain and electricity to jump off his body. After some more he was on the floor, panting and trying to endure it all. That was when the shocking stopped. In the room some scientists were taking notes, while others where looking at a screen dumbstruck. The number of Amps that the Jolteon had managed to resist and absorb before suffering overcharge was by far the highests number they've seen at fifty thousand Amps. "This Jolteon could blow up this entire section of the lab if it was to let loose a full Discharge." One man said.

" _Lower the charge in the air. Let it discharge slowly._ " The Alakazam said into their minds, seems like he was the investigation's boss.

They did exactly that, and the lower charge on the aire acted as a vacuum to his extra electricity, forcing it out and thus making Rad tense up in pain and it lasted, long, to the point that he couldn't hold it and howled in pain as the outside charge lowered more and forced more electricity out, then his body offered the only relief it could when he passed out.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the room where they were being held into cages. Another human came in, carrying Shade in her cage. The Eevee was all wet and not only because she was crying. The human left the Eevee on top of the Vaporeon's cage and then went to Dark. getting out a controller he pressed a button, and the Zoroark's collad tightened until it cut his breathing tube. Dark struggled for a moment, trying to pry it away, but nothing worked. And the man only let go of the button when the Zoroark was down.

Dark slowly lost it because of the lack of air, he fell on his knees and then leant on the wall of his cage, his strength gone, he didn't last long on falling unconscious. Only then the man released the button and the collar went lose, letting the Zoroark breath again and making sure he did before ordering a Machoke to carry him. The Pokémon going in and picking him up then out.

When the Zoroark woke up again he was blinded by a light coming from above. He tried taking his head away but he felt he couldn't move. His head was secured to wherever he was laying on. He tried moving, but found he was restrained and immobilized completely. He started to get scared, wondering what was happening. What were they going to do. That's when he felt it. Something stabbing his skin and slowly moving, ripping it open with a clean cut. The Zoroark tried to get his arm away but the restraint wouldn't let him as the cut was elongated from elbow to shoulder. Halfway through Dark was writhing and roaring, yet his body was held tight. The blood that emanated from the cut dripped slowly form his body. The scientists had done something to slim the changes of blood loss, or they just new where to cut. Whatever it was that they were doing, the only thing Dark knew was that it hurt! and had him roaring almost every second. The dark fox was being skinned alive and made sure that he felt every second of it. He couldn't stop, and the roars only grew in strength the moment the first surgeon started to implant whatever the hell it was directly over the Zoroark's discovered muscles. And more so when he felt the same being done to his other arm by another human.

Time passed at a snail's pace as the two humans worked on his body. The Zoroark's roars could have been heard throughout the whole facility with ease, until his throat got sore and his nervous system got so numbed that he almost didn't feel pain. He just felt the nips and the cuts being done and opened, and when the installation, as one of the surgeons called it when they finished his arms called it, was being done. It hurt, but his pain receptors had gone into overdrive to the point of shutting down, a pleasure that was denied to the Zoroark because of his insomnia kicking in with all that was happening.

However, the scientists weren't done after finishing with his legs as well, no. Next followed the Zoroark's toso, more pain came, dulled to nothing by suppressed senses. "It's surprising. Normally they tend to black out from the pain." One of the surgeons commented casually, a hand mockingly petting the tearing Zoroark's face as they kept working.

They didn't stop. They kept cutting his skin open, installing something and then stitching it back to close it. If not for whatever it was that they gave him he would' have bleed out on that table, his arms, legs, torso and back were cut, not a part of his body was untouched, even the face and the neck. Not a spot was left. When they finished they didn't free him and with reason. His body and muscles were trembling the moment they stepped away, to the point that he was having convulsions, if not for the restrains the stitches could break and the wounds reopen. His body calmed down after a few minutes and settled down. His breathing though, was still shaky and unsteady, but little by little it relaxed. Once settled his senses began to come back to himp. Even the pain that he felt all over his body, and whatever move he made only brought more pain to him. And there was absolutely no unconscious paradise for the Zoroark.

* * *

Eric and Elly didn't know how many hours it had been, but they had barely gotten any sleep when the door slid open all of a sudden, and a scientist looked around and stared at Elly. He held a magnet to the gate and it opened, then grabbed the Eevee's neck, almost choking her. "Elly!" The Riolu reached for the iron bars and shook them violently, trying to break them and get to her. However, he could only look powerless as she was almost choked to death, the scientist pulling out a syringe and sticking it straight into her neck, injecting some foreign into her body. Eric shouted in despair and started shaking the cage more violently, trying to summon his aura, but finding himself unable to do so: there wasn't any in the surroundings, due to the lack of wildlife or plants, and was too tired to draw from his own reserves.

Elly's eyes looked around as she tried to meet her mate's eyes, or try to analyze the syringe's contents, tempted to look at the scientist in the eyes and take over his body… but she couldn't bring herself to do it. It was something she had always detested, and even in that situation she couldn't muster the courage. As the syringe was emptied, she was tossed back into her cage and the door was shut, then the scientist grabbed it and left with her in tow. She weakly reached for Eric, her body feeling numb and strange, and the Riolu only shouted more and more, tears coming from his eyes as he went completely desperate. His shouts were silenced once the door shut, but they were replaced by familiar screams. Dark's screams and howls could be heard from where she was, recognizing them because of the many times she had seen his sparrings. While it made her more afraid, it also told her something important: they were all in the same building, and he had been captured as well.

Whatever they had used on her wasn't putting her to sleep, but her body still felt numb and weird… as if she couldn't move at all, but her nerves and senses were flaring up, along with her body… Her eyes widened in realization just as they entered a new room and she was tossed to the ground, then left in the room without the cage. She struggled to stand up, panting heavily and cursing the bastard humans, looking around the room. The floor was hard, really hard, and cold, the air was cold because of the air conditioners to counter the summer's heat, and her nose was twitching, picking up two very different scents: her own, and that of another male's. She found him very quickly: a Growlithe was slowly approaching her, walking awkwardly, and panting the same way she was.

"Experiment 0498: Nymphomanic Shot. To be released and sold privately to daycares and other breeding establishments to hasten breeding processes. This is sample number 57 of the serum. Test begins… now." The cold mechanical voice blared in her head, making her ears ring and body tremble with every word. She hated this. She hated all of this, and promised she'd get her revenge for this… humiliation. She stared up at the Growlithe, who hadn't said a word since they'd gotten there.

"Hey, you don't have to… to do this!" She said, backing up against the wall, glancing at him alarmingly. He didn't answer at all, instead crouching down and shifting in place… before attempting to pounce her like a male would do with it's prey. She quickly dodged to the left, her body growing weaker.

"Female shows resistance against the male's advancements even under the effects of heat. It increases male libido exponentially but doesn't do so with female. Request to emphasize research on this sample made."

"Like hell.. I just don't want to die here…" The Growlithe whispered under the mechanical voice. Elly turned around, lying on her back and looking at the fire type. HIs eyes were one of despair, staring at her in pure horror. "If I don't do it, they'll kill me… and they'll kill you too! Please!" He started advancing towards her, while she kept backing off and shaking her head, keeping her tail between her legs. "I don't want to die, please! Please don't… Don't…" He groaned and coughed, sitting down and seizing up, his head twitching and shifting around in unnatural ways, until he laid on his back, grasping his chest with a pained expression, trembling until his eyes rolled into the back of his head and stopped moving.

Elly simply stood there, panting heavily and staring at the dead body in front of her, starting to hyperventilate again. She was used to violence and death, but… not at this level. These weren't noble deaths, they were just being killed off one by one like filthy animals, with no regards to their lives.

"Test was a failure. Male subject suffered a heart attack two minutes after injection, while female subject resisted the effect. End of log." The voice went silent and guards went into the room, carrying one cage. They pointed their guns at Elly and threatened her into the cage, then returned her to her spot, leaving that corpse there in the room… to do whatever they wanted to do with him. As she returned to her spot she found Eric to be an extremely distressful state, even as she was returned, and growled at the guards, who kicked his cage and walked away laughing. Once they were gone, he rushed to his bars and tried to reach for her.

"Elly… Oh thank the stars, you're alive… I was so worried, they carried you away like that, an-"

"They're going to kill us." She sentenced, looking at the ground, then looking up at him. "We're just toys to them, throwaways, we're not even living sentient beings, just tools. They tried to make me…" She didn't say anything beyond that, letting him guess because of her posture. "And they ended up killing the other pokémon. He couldn't handle whatever they injected into him… And I don't know if it's going to kill me later down the line too, or if you'll be taken away next and I won't ever see you again. The one thing I know, though, is that if we don't get out of here, we'll die here, Eric." Albeit he had first feared she had given up, he realized that in reality she was sick of that place, and had a strong desire to break out.

That wasn't the only things she wanted to tell him, however, and narrated how, while she was on the way to inhumane test, she heard Dark screaming not too far away. "So… he's kidnapped as well?" There was a long silence between them when Elly nodded, the same answer hovering above their heads: who else was there with them?

"Do you think… they got all of us?" Her voice was but a faint whisper. "What about the others? Zed, Lucy, Jake, Serge, Nox… the Kaisers… Emily… what happened to them? Are they here with us? Did they somehow avoid capture? Are they already dead and we don't know it? Are…" She was about to break into tears when Eric grabbed the bars of their compact cells and shook them.

"No. No they didn't. Stop thinking like that." His voice sounded determined, even with all the misery that surrounded them. "Look at me. Now wipe those tears off and listen to me: We're going to get out of this place, and we'll find all of those that have been captured, and we'll ask for help of those that weren't. I find it hard to believe they got all of us… and if that had happened we would've seen them by now. And we really wanted to check, you can try and contact them."

"Yeah… but they took our crystals. It's no longer a closed channel, so if I were to try and contact them, any psychic pokémon they have to detect those would know exactly where we're trying to reach them and where they are."

"Then we'll do it when we have no other choice to and when we have to put all our cards on the table. But please… don't give up, Elly. I know that most of them didn't get captured. I just… know it. Call it my gut feeling, call it some sort of hidden bond, call it whatever you want. I just know." Even though it was a bleak situation, it was funny that even at those times words were the only thing they could find solace in. Perhaps it were his hopeful words, perhaps her own gut feeling, or perhaps that invisible bond that Eric had just spoken about or something that escaped their wildest imagination… but whatever the case, something made her believe those words, and started to knit together the plan that would eventually break them out of there, scrounging up whatever small glimpses and snippets of doorways, elevators, and of course, freedom.

* * *

It has been hours since they took Dark away, and the only humans that had come had been to take out more Pokémon or leave others, but none of them was the Zoroark. Natalie was starting to grow worried and scared, thinking the worst had happened. While Radius was trying to comfort her somehow, ignoring his own predicament with the overcharge he still suffered. At least she didn't seem to be breaking down. Across the room, Shade looked at them. Last time they had tried to have a conversation a human had smashed her cage to the point of knocking it over and yelled at her to shut up. Rad was almost choked unconscious when he growled and tried to fry the bastard with an electric attack, and to the choking added the pain of summoning his element. The young Eevee felt alone. She wanted to talk, but she was afraid the same would happen again.

After a few minutes, a man came in and opened Nat's cage, then reached for her and she backed away. However, he reached her, holding her scruff, and she bite him hard in reflex, her fangs sinking into his hand, making the man yell in pain and yank his hand away, getting some nasty cuts on it. "Dah! You damned thing!" He yelled and reached again for her, this time quicker and harsher, threw her to the floor and kicked her hard on the belly. Nat ended up curling into a ball, screaming in pain.

"Nat!" Radius and Shade barked seeing this, both of them worried. Then the man knelt down and held her, took of a syringe from his coat's pocket and mercilessly stabbed her neck with it and injected her something, then picked her up and threw her against the back into her cage with rage.

"Damnit! Gonna have to get some medicine for rabies or whatever infection this thing has given me now!" He growled and then reached for Radius cage, who was growling and tried to do the same, but the man this time took his hand away quickly, then reached for the cage and pulled on it, letting it fall down to the floor. It was only one meter fall but still it hurt like hell to the Jolteon inside. Then the man picked it up. "Unless you want me to cut your already freak's tail off you better behave!" The man yelled and then groaned. "Why do I bother, is not like this stupide animals can understand shit." he said as he went out, carrying the cage with him and slamming the door shut.

Natalie was left writhing in her cage, whining as she felt her body heating up. Shade could only look. Until another man came and took her cage and went away. The Shiny Eevee only being able to look at her friend suffering like that without being able to do anything.

The human took her to a familiar room for her, with a bunch of other Eevee of different sizes, and left her cage in the first spot he found, then went out and closed the room, securing it when he left. "This again?" She asked herself, thinking out loud to hear her own thoughts over the sounds of the others.

However, it was right then when she saw another familiar Eevee in the room, whose sky blue eyes stared at her in shock, unable to determine whether it was good or bad luck which had brought them together. "Shade!" Elly's shout alerted her, and before she knew it she was right next to her, hugging her friend. "Thank goodness you're alright… They got you too?!"

The shiny hugged the older Eevee, held back tears flowing out freely as she needed it badly. "Elly!" She let out hugging her back. "Th-they've done something to Nat! And had taken Dark and Radius away!" She started to ramble about what had been happening on their side, telling her how Dark's been gone for hours and the overcharge they forced on Radius as she cried on the blue eyed shoulder.

Elly comforted her, drawing the attention of the other Eevees in the room, calming her down. "It's alright… calm down. Look, Eric and I are making some plans… we just need to be put in the same experiment and we'll find a way. You guys are all together, right? There's no one else there that we know?"

"N-no. I've j-just seen Nat, Rad and Dark. And the scents are too confusing to pick them up separately." After this, the Eevee felt better after unloading it on someone else she could trust and then she remembered. "Elly, listen, you have to resist in this room." She said. "They are going to heat up this place a lot and…" The younger Eevee explained what she had suffered the last time she was there, and that horrible feeling of wanting to survive above the others there. She also said that she had seen other Eevee forced to evolve and then their limp bodies taken away, not knowing whether they were dead or just knocked out.

Elly looked at her concerned, but shook her head. "That's not what matters right now Shade. I know we'll both get through this. We're strong." She held her paw, smiling, and looking at the other Eevees in the room, female and male, all of them scared, some tired of this constant repetition. "Listen, when you go back to them, you need to say what I'm about to tell you: Eric and I are going to break out. We'll go find you if we can, and if we can't, we'll find everyone else and come get you in the blink of an eye. And trust me, not even those terrifying guns will stand in the way. So tell them that they must be strong and resist as much as possible, ok?"

Shade nodded to her, feeling more confident now, even knowing what was going to happen shortly. Speaking of which, she was starting to feel the air hotter by the second. "It's starting." She said. Elly nodded and braced herself for the worst, looking at the Eevees in the room.

"Do not lose hope!" She exclaimed as the heat started increasing, resembling the temperatures they had to endure in the outside world. "We will get out of this soon enough, I promise you all! Don't give in!"

"What makes you think there's any hope to have? Sooner or later if this doesn't work we'll just be killed." Said a small male, looking at her, his look and pose was clear he was already broken.

"There's always a sliver of hope! If you give it up then you're as good as dead! So clutch it with all you have, and don't let them win!" A small female in the room was starting to become inspired by her words, even as the temperature was increasing the Eevees were starting to gather up to listen to Eevee, leaving the scientists confused or amused at their stupidity. The temperature was starting to become unbearable

"Guys. They want us to evolve for whatever sick things they wanna do with us, but do any of you want to evolve for them?" Shade was the one to ask this around.

"You know they don't stop until we do!"

"This is the second time I'm put here, and I'm still an Eevee."

"Evolution is not something that is forced upon us… Even if they've taken up all that we have, we still have one thing that they will never take from us. Our choices. We choose when we want to evolve, when we feel prepared, when we've reached our peaks! Don't let them make that choice for you! Don't give up on that last hope that you have!" They were starting to cheer for her, a tiny female staying besides her almost at all times.

"Get as spread around the room as you can for now, that way the heat would be at least at least a bit more bearable." Shade said to them all, the Shiny Eevee felt really confident, contrary to when she was alone with strangers. A few of them did that, getting away from the others and sitting or lying down separated. Soon the others followed, and everyone concentrated on resisting and enduring the heat in the room. Some were already panting and sweating with their tongues hanging from their mouths.

The heat became unbearable minutes after that, everyone sweating and panting heavily, but everyone managed to stay strong, and no one evolved during that test. Elly smiled at Shade, as if she had shown that they truly could do something to fight back. The heat then started to quickly subside, and all of their sweat slowly became cold as the temperatures dropped progressively, giving the Eevees ample time to get together and share their heat. The smell and stickiness of their fur was the least of their worries: they had to survive, to make sure that they weren't defeated by all of these torture sessions.

Some started sneezing, having obviously caught a cold, and others showed signs of starting to evolve into a Glaceon, their furs losing their smooth color to turn clearer, but they managed to resist that too. "We can do this... We actually can do this!" A voice said in the back, Elly looking at them and smiling. Even though it was small, they could at least show they wouldn't be defeated so easily, that they weren't their pets or test subjects.

Shade was shaking and her voice sounded likely, but it was because of the cold, steam coming from her mouth as she tried to speak. "K-k-keep it up, guys. Th-this is not over yet." She then looked at Elly, she knew what came next as the sky blue eyed Eevee did. As the cold temperatures disappeared, a buzzing noise made their ears twitch, slowly growing louder, until a sudden snap echoed in the ground and a weak current jolted them up, making them scream.

"Electricity?!" Someone screamed as panic started to spread, but Elly quickly calmed down, reminding them that they were trying to get them to succumb and evolve so that they wouldn't endure the pain. The buzzing noise came back as it started charging, increasing in pitch, and when the snap happened searing pain coursed through their bodies as volts of electricity were dumped into their furry bodies. There was a loud howl from one of them. The same male that had told them that there was no hope. His body crackled with electricity as his fur was already yellow and spiking up. It wasn't long before he evolved, once the process was done, he concentrated, fur spiked and, tapping onto his new acquired powers, he acted as a lightning rod for the charge that was sent into them all. "There's nothing to fight back for. So I'd rather die now." He said as he smirked at Elly and Shade, yet there was something behind those words and in his actions. He was absorbing the whole charge that was being sent at them all.

Shade was out of words for this, looking at the recently evolved male, if he kept absorbing the electricity he would get overcharged and with so little time to get used to it he would… Elly looked at him, beyond flabbergasted, but grimly accepted and nodded, showing her respects for the male. He knew he was going to face a certain grim fate after that… but the fact he wouldn't go as a scared Eevee, but rather someone who stood up against their oppressors and showed that even in death, he had made an honorable choice. After the remainder of the shocks proved ineffective, a couple of guards came in and grabbed the Jolteon, who was carried off. Everyone stared at him in a mixture of admiration and sadness, keeping a smile that wouldn't leave the minds of those in that room.

And nobody had asked that brave pokémon his name.

The next test was amongst the most brutal of all, with guards and scientists alike coming into the room with water tanks. The scientists grabbed the Eevees while the guards pointed at them threateningly. Before they could even process what was happening they saw how the Eevees were being shoved into the water face first, starting to drown them. They were going to get them to evolve, one way or another. Elly had managed to take a long breath before she was shoved in, the water burning her eyes for just a second before she could open them and look at the other tanks.

Shade, however, hadn't been so lucky, being shoved in too quickly and unable to catch a breath and was screaming and drowning, panicking heavily. She wasn't the only one however.

"Stupid mutt! Stan-" The Eevee that had been following Elly's orders so closely bit down on its oppressor's hand, drawing blood and making the woman groan in pain, which in turn only made her shove it further down into the water. It writhed and struggled, just like the rest of the Eevees, some panicking as they neared their breaking point. Shade was running out of air, and could feel slivers of water going into her lungs, conscience fading, which made Elly fear they were going to keep them there until they either drowned or evolved.

It wasn't the case however, as luck grimly proved it. Seconds before Shade fainted and drowned in the water, they were pulled out to be met with the sounds of shouting and insults. Elly was panting, hanging limply from the scientist's hands, and everything went by like a blur, different shades of white, blue, brown, all of them passing by and mixing into strange splatters of colors, her ears ringing and coughing up water. She was tossed into her cage, which made that dizziness disappear and the water leave her body, laying on the cage's base and recovering her breath before looking up slowly.

She saw that same Eevee that had been struggling floating face down in it's tank, whilst the scientist that had been handling the "experiment" was being shouted at and chastised by her fellow scientists.

"What did you do?! You killed a specimen for no reason! If they were about to drown you had to pull them out! Those were our orders!"

"The fucking thing bit me! So fuck it, it's dead and gone, who cares! Serves it right!" That woman wasn't spouting words, but rather venom, making motions as if she were about to spit at the poor pokémons corpse, showing Elly what she believed to be humanity's true side: why they were doing this was of no consequence now. What she could only see was the disrespect and care, or lack thereof, to other living things but themselves. She was thoroughly disgusted, a voice in her mind screaming that where she now stood she was staring at horrifying monsters, just as bad or even worse than her father.

She glanced around, looking for Shade, and found her lying face down in her cage, coughing up water, a clear sign that she was still alive, and for that she was very much grateful: that poor Eevee, another valiant sacrifice, had just inadvertently saved their lives, and that'd be something she'd take into consideration when enacting justice on that filth.

"Shade! Shade! Get up! Remember what I told you! Tell the others, we'll come rescue you and we'll make them pay, ok?! Stay alive and stay strong!" She kept shouting words of encouragement and oaths for revenge, only earning her a kick to her cage, a grizzly looking guard having gotten sick and tired of her constant yapping. Almost on instinct she used her psychic powers, tugging on his shoelaces and undoing them, tying them around his feet while he laughed, then as he moved away from the cage tripped and fell face down on the floor.

His fall triggered laughter from his sadistic companions, shouting as a tooth flew away and bounced around the marble floor, blood dripping from his lip as he complained to the other guards, beyond angry. He was unaware that Elly had done it, and she couldn't be any happier.

"This is just a taste of what I'll give you… I'll make you pay for all those you've killed." She swore again and again under her breath as she was taken away. She caught one last glimpse of Shade, and the other Eevee could see the murderous glance in the Eevee's sky blue eyes. It scared her a bit and if she could she'd back away from the older Eevee as her first impulse said. Even then, after the shock, she nodded to her friend, remembering her words and the message she had to carry to the others.

Eric was tapping his foot repeatedly, his arms covered in scars and dried up blood. They had been doing tests to analyze the tattoo on his fur, cutting the skin and fur… the damn thing didn't disappear however, which he was grateful for, but the thing was extremely sore now. When he saw Elly appear, all those thoughts vanished in an instant, and when the scientist left the hall he rushed to her cage, trying to reach her. His advances were met with a shake of the head however, the Eevee holding back tears.

"They're killing us like flies… They don't have any respect for our lives, and even in death they only further desecrate us… If you survive, they insult you and beat you, forcing you into more tortures until you break or die. And when either happens, they experiment with your body, open you up, tear through your insides and humiliate you, even after you're dead…" She stood still for a couple of seconds before punching the bars. "Don't they have enough already?! I hate them all! I'll make them pay for what they're doing! We're going to get out of here Eric!" She was incredibly determined, which made Eric smile… but he also saw something else inside her, something darker, and his fears were confirmed as she continued. "I'll make them suffer just as much as they're making us suffer… These humans are the reason why this Dailos wants to wipe humanity. Not much of a stretch now, is it?"

"Elly…" He could only sense bitter contempt in her voice, sitting inside his cage and keeping his eyes glued to the Eevee's back. He wanted to say so many things, hug her, show her that her thoughts weren't correct… but right now he was risking discouraging her. Even if those impulses were dark, they were some of the few things they could hang on to in order to retain their sanity. "I'd lie if I said I didn't have them either, that I wanted to make them pay in full… But this isn't the way." Was all he could say without voicing his thoughts completely. Both he and Elly tried to get some rest, something inside of them telling the next time they'd wake up there could potentially be the last.

* * *

At some point Dark had lost notion of time and space. He had spaced so much out that it seemed like he was sleeping awake. At least until the lights in his room were turned on and hurt his eyes, breaking his thoughts and forcing him aware of his surroundings agains. At some point the restrains on his body had been taken off and he shot an arm in front of his face to cover his eyes as he grunted in discomfort. "Stand." A voice commanded, coming from all around. The Zoroark sat up and looked around for the one who had spoken but didn't see anyone. The command came again and he decided to stand up from the surgery table he had been on. Dried blood on it and he could feel some of it tugging his fur at some places, as well as he could feel something. Looking to his left arm he could see healing cuts still stitched up. And the whole pain of what had happened came back to his mind, making him cringe. His throat felt sore still after so much roaring.

"Beginning strength test." A more robotic voice said, and the floor parted as what seemed to be a weight was lifted. "Weight of then kilograms. Subject must lift."

Dark however, was confused beyond belief by all this. He just stared and the thing and then looked around, trying to see anyone but he couldn't. After a bit, the voice came back. "Subject refuses to cooperate. Initiating procedure." At those words, the table was swallowed by the floor of the room, as well as the weight and then, a mechanical sound was heard as two walls of the room started to move towards the center.

"What the hell!?" The Zoroark let out seeing this, not believing what he was seeing. He tried to get out of the room but there was no door that he could see. ' _Is this some kind of treasure hunting movie or what?_ ' He thought, if only to try and get some tension out through what to him was a stupid joke on the worst moment possible. In the end, and desperate, Dark started to push one of the walls as if it was going to work. The only thing that did was push him against the other wall. The Zoroark Even started trying to use it to avoid getting crushed between them but it was clearly not working at all.

"Subject must activate Nanomachines to survive. Otherwise, Subject will become a 'Poke-pancake'." What the robotic voice said was confusing to the Zoroark in various ways. ' _Har har, very funny!_ ' He thought to the joke it did but then. ' _Wait! Nanomachines? What Nanomachines?_ ' He asked himself. Not having time to think about that he empowered his muscles with aura, which refrained a bit the walls from getting too close, but it wasn't enough. And using more Strength he only stopped it from moving but he wouldn't be able to hold it for long. "Walls stopped. Nanomachines still disabled. Subject seems unaware on how to activate them." ' _No fucking way, Sherlock!_ ' The Zoroark thought while concentrating more on stopping the walls from pushing him to a premature end of his life. At the same time he was trying to find a way to do what the machine said, seeing as it was his only way to get out of this one alive. But he couldn't find a way to do it.

"Damnit! Come on!" He grunted as he kept pushing. After a bit more he started to feel some kind of buzzing all over his body, and the wall started to feel less resisting of his push.

"Subject has activated Nanomachines. Resistance test can commence." The voice said and the wall started to press back against him. Dark only concentrated on playing even more force to his pushes managing to neglect the walls advance and with a bit more, push it back again. His muscles trembled for a moment before he started to push it back again. Grunting for the effort but he could push it back, even as the mechanical strength pushing the wall to him was ever greater. It took him some time but the dark fox was able to push the walls to their original positions. "Test number one completed." The voice said. Dark sighed and let himself fall down, sitting. Some cuts had reopened with the effort and blood was dripping from them. However, his rest was short lived, his relief and relaxation turned off the nanomachines, this causing a tremendous shock to rock his body and that made him fall down. "Error. Malfunctioning during turning off protocol on the Nanomachines. Consequences: The Subject suffers a strong shock as the energy stored within the devices while active is released." The voice said. The next thing Dark knew was that the lights were turned off.

"Test finished. Conclusions on the Nanomachines: Defectuous. Installation on humans, not recommended."

* * *

Down below the pokémon were being tortured, a human was experiencing a different type of torture. Glasses on the desk, cigarette in hand, a torn calendar with a date marked in red crayon hanging on the wall, the man with messed up blond hair, unbuttoned shirt and undone tie was simply staring at the ground, smoking. A serene scene from the outside, but in reality that man's brain was a raging storm, trying to come up for solutions for the algebraic equations and riddles written on his papers and blackboard, which would look like incomprehensible rubbish to the naked eye. He was trying to uncover the riddle behind the Dark Matter, that substance they had recovered months ago from that farm state… and he wasn't anywhere close to figuring it out, his only advancements being those that they had made beforehand and shown to their boss. Everything else was still a mystery. An annoying, repetitive and painful mystery that taunted him at every step of the way.

Gherard got up from his spot, tossing the cigarette into the ashtray and tossing the tie aside, grabbing his scientist's coat and heading out, hair in a mess, bags under his eyes. He pressed the keypad outside his door, closing it automatically and a loud beep followed. "Make an appointment for the Dome Chamber in ten minutes. I'll need two subjects today."

"Yes sir. Should we pick them for you?" The robotic voice that answered resembled that of a woman's, but the scientist responded by shaking his head.

"No… I shall hand pick them myself." He left the hallway after that, heading for the elevator and riding it one floor up. The guards and scientists all stood guard besides him, saluting as he went by, only igniting his anger further, his hatred for that militarized hierarchy showing in full. He walked into the containment units and looked around. For most of the pokémon there, some new and freshly made catches, as they had to "restock" daily, confused him for a normal scientist, but those that had been there for a relatively long period visibly cringed and backed away.

As he reached Eric and Elly's cages, their eyes stuck to the man's, and right off the bat the Riolu felt a different aura emanating from him. He too, was an abomination, like all the rest, but seemed to have other motives than just whatever reasons those scientists had in order to sleep soundly after killing dozens of pokémon daily. THe way his eyes moved around, his hands twitched and the poignant smell of smoke gave it away: he was one of the higher ups.

Elly couldn't care less, lunging for him and calling his attention. Eric did so as well, if anything to try and join his mate in whatever fate awaited them… and it worked. Gherard's emotional state didn't allow him to tolerate these reactions, and decided to get rid of these two for their impudence. He called two guards with a snap of his fingers, and pointed at the cages. "Come with me. We're going to the Dome. Their foul attitude will only serve one purpose."

The guards obeyed him, holstering their rifles and grabbing the cages, separating the two physically. However, they were readying themselves, fully knowing that whatever was about to happen was going to be their only shot at getting out of there alive. As they got into the elevator, however, they saw discouraged how instead of going up it went down, further below the ground. They went past a second basement, and then a third, their hopes sinking down with them as they reached the fourth floor, god knew how many feet underground. The elevator doors shut behind them as they were taken through sneaking hallways, memorizing their route so as to make the way back easier.

Nothing prepared them for what would happen next however, as when they were taken into the heavily guarded room, with six guards standing just outside a blast resistant gate, they saw the last thing they would've expected: a dome of glass, held upright and in place by that a steel base with huge cords and wires monitoring the strange writhing black mass inside of it. A mass that wasn't even touching the glass itself, suspended thanks to the work of the magnets positioned in the base and the ceiling of the room.

Both of them were unable to say anything, frozen solid at the mere sight of the Dark Matter. Many questions rushed through their minds, but they both knew if just wasn't the time to think about it. All the guards outside came into the room, and the blast door closed as Eric and Elly were taken out of the cages and positioned on the edge of the dome, the dark matter centimeters away from their feet.

"Push them in." Gherard's voice was stern and cold, recording this 'experiment', mainly because it was the protocol. Eric and Elly looked at each other and nodded. They both knew how this was going to end, and as they jumped in on their own accord and accepted their fate, they couldn't help but smile, taking a deep breath that might as well have been their last.

Seconds passed, and as expected some bubbles popped on the surface, making them think that the experiment was over. "Experiment was unsuccessful. Subjects 7ec0ee and e5e5e5 were disintegrat-"

A giant black Riolu first rose out of them dome and smashed into the guards, grabbing them all, some of them managing to fire some bullets at either the ground or walls, and then smashed them into the glass pane where Gherard was. He dropped the recorder in shock as the pane was busted to pieces, eight unconscious bodies falling on him and seemingly knocking him out as well as he hit the wall with enough force to open gnarly wound on the back of his head, blacking out. After the room was clear Eric and Elly jumped out of the Dark Matter, which dripped off of their bodies as they glowed faintly, said glow disappearing after the dark matter was off them.

"Eric was right… our powers do protect us from this stuff." The Riolu said, clutching his fist and looking at the blast door. He looked at Elly and smiled, giving her the cue to smash it in, which she did with pleasure, hitting it repeatedly and bending it out of shape, the sound of the hits echoing throughout the entire floor, confusing the scientists down there. She howled out and smashed it away with one last hit, converting the fist into the black sphere which retreated to her side, keeping it close. Eric ran outside with all the smoke and dust, running straight into a confused guard, who quickly aimed his rifle at him and opened fire.

The Riolu was more than ready however, and summoned his light staff in the blink of an eye, hitting the muzzle of the gun away and make the shot go wide, saving himself, then jumped up, used the gun as leverage and hit his face repeatedly with several backhanded blows, leaving the way clear. They both ran back the way they came, and found the elevator doors. "Shit… can't reach."

Elly was two steps ahead of him however, and as he tried to reach for the buttons she simply used her powers to press it and open the doors, rushing in, then hit the button for the first floor, going straight to help their friends. "Alright, we're getting Shade and the others out first, and th-"

( **Sweatshop - Persona 5** )

" **EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY. TEST SUBJECTS ON THE RUN IN BASEMENT 4. REPEAT. TEST SUBJECTS ON THE RUN IN BASEMENT 4. SHUTTING OFF LIFT ACCESS.** " The robotic voice blared off, accompanied by an ear screeching alarm that made all pokémon in the labs visibly cringe and cower away, and all the guards, even those positioned outside, reacted quickly, heading to the laboratory itself immediately.

"Oh you've got to be fucking…" Elly pressed the buttons again, but the elevator was stuck, and didn't seem to be going anywhere. The lights went out shortly after, but a red emergency light showed them that there was a hatch at the very top. Without any hesitation, Eric readied an aura sphere and blew it off, blowing a hole in the cabin wide enough for them to jump out of. The elevator was stuck right before the third floor, and the only thing Eric had to do was pry the doors open… but as he did so he saw a dark hallway in front of him, only lit by the red emergency lights spinning and giving him a good look of the rows and rows of soldiers already taking aim in the hallway.

"Elly! Block!" His voice was drowned by the sound of bullets firing off and whistling past them. Without any hesitation, the Eevee put up a psychic barrier, which resisted the bullets, and then Eric blew the elevator doors as well, both of them charging in with the metal. The doors flew wildly and hit those close to the entrance, whilst Eric took care of the soldiers on the right, spinning his staff, deflecting what little bullets made it through the barrier and knocking out everyone, while Elly simply had to summon another giant paw that swept the guards and smashed them against the floor, the other wall, and then the ceiling, dropping them down afterwards.

With no other way to go, they charged onward, checking around every corner for either cameras or guards. Whatever camera they found, Eric blew up with a sphere, and if there was a guard around the corner he attacked before they could react, or Elly used her psychic barriers or her dark craft to block bullets. They slowly started making their way through the twisting halls, the sirens and alarms blaring off still and screeching in their ears, forcing them to use telepathy in order to even understand the other.

" **WARNING. SUBJECTS ON THE LOOSE ON LEVEL 3. ALL PERSONNEL TO LEVEL 3 IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS NOT A SIMULATION. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A SIM-** Attention all soldiers!" They both recognized the voice that suddenly cut off the alarm: the head scientist.

Back on level 4, Gherard had climbed out from underneath the pile and had grabbed a microphone, speaking through the facility. "The subjects are a Riolu and an Eevee. **Do not shoot to kill. I repeat. Do not kill the test subjects.** Do anything you must but bring those fuckers to me **alive**!" He was absolutely livid, but there was also a hopeful glimmer in his eye: he had finally found the answer he had been seeking.

"Like hell! Come on, we need to go!" Eric shouted, urging Elly to follow him faster. On their way through the halls however, they stumbled across glass windows, which allowed them to look inside padded rooms with… human children in them.

"Wh- What the hell's this? Those are… humans, right?!"

"So the bastards aren't only experimenting on pokémon… this is sick." Was all Eric could answer, seeing Elly's eyes widen to an impossible degree: now she realized that humans as a whole couldn't be blamed, her bloodthirst vanishing for the time being. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her towards him, and the two kept on running, finding another locked blast door in front of them. "Damn it. Dead end!" Eric hit the door with his staff as he said this, trying to break it down, and just before Elly suggested they find another way they heard the sound of heavy clad boots echoing behind them.

"We don't have time for this!" Elly brought out her fist again and smashed the entire door, along with the frame and the wall with it discharging her fury. They found themselves in an open pace, walking on a walkway that split into two paths: one went forward, the other to the left, though both doors seemed to be locked. To the right they could see murky water flowing down a diagonal surface, then going into two fans that turned all solid waste into mincemeat before it flowed down even narrower tunnels. This was a waste disposal facility, and they dreaded to imagine if they disposed of their failed subjects like this. They didn't have much time on their hands however, as the soldiers were literally hot on their heels.

( **Stop the music** )

"There they are!" That was all the indication they needed to keep on running as fast as their legs let them, but at the point where the walkway split the door in front of them burst open, and through it even more soldiers flowed out, moving to the sides and taking aim at them with their rifles, leaving the two completely surrounded… and the third door opened with a swift kick from another soldier, this one clad in a kevlar vest and helmet, with a small gun in his hands. Before they could react, he fired the gun, two strings flying off extremely quickly and giving them no chance to react. They hit Eric's leg, and he felt electricity painfully flowing through him.

He howled loudly and Elly turned to face him, quickly cutting the wires with a psychic blade and then turning to him. He was down on his knees, panting heavily and still shaking. "Damn it… I can't…" More soldiers came rushing out from the third door, cutting off their escape routes. "Fuck… it can't end… like this!" Eric stood back up, but needed the support of his staff to even get on his knees, clearly in no condition to fight. They backed off to the edge of the walkway, staring at their pursuers nervously.

"This is bad… We need to get out of here Eric!"

"I know! I'm thinking on something!" He shouted, keeping his eyes on the two groups he could see, while Elly focused on the other. They were getting closer and closer, their guns still pointed at them, and the guard with the taser had pulled out another gun, identical to the last, aiming to hit them again. He looked to the other side, and saw the blades spinning at high speeds, except for the last one… that one was getting stuck every so often, and Eric saw the remains of the door she had blown off had gotten stuck and were slowing it down, chipping through the metal with every turn.

"Elly! The hole! You need to jump!" He shouted, having made a decision. She nodded, and was about to, but stopped right at the edge, recognizing the word 'You' instead of 'We'.

"What?! You're coming with me too!" She shouted, reaching to try and grab him.

"And we'll get caught anyways! They probably know where that hole leads, and if we go in together they'll be waiting for us at the other side! But if I distract them here… then maybe you can get away!"

"What are you talking about?! We can just leave after we get out of this hole! Eric, come on!"

"Just jump down there already!" He tried to push her off with his body as the soldiers got closer, seeing what she was attempting to do and preparing to shoot her.

"No! Eric, please, we can get out together!"

"I can't risk it! This'll guarantee one of us gets out! Call for help and come back to get me… I'll survive until then." He sounded determined, and she recognized that tone of voice from whenever he had made a decision. Before she could start complaining again, he pushed back against her and toppled her. Her weight did the rest, as she fell backwards and into the grimy water whilst screaming his name at the top of her lungs. The moment she hit the water, however, and saw him turn around and start to fend off soldiers armed with clubs and taser guns, she knew it was too late. She turned to face the blades and used her powers to slow them down, and finally her dark craft to fully stop it… and as she was passing by, the steel door finally gave in and the blades suddenly snapped into motion again.

However, she went past it quickly enough to not lose any limbs, only a nasty cut on her right front leg, making her wince in pain and then feeling the grimy water burning on the open wound, knowing it would most likely get infected. The next few minutes she could only hear the sound of the water rushing around here while in pure darkness, sinking in and out of the foul smelling water and attempting to keep it outside of her mouth, even though the taste got to her, making her wince and gag the whole way. After what felt like an eternity, she saw the light at the end of the tunnel, flying off into the sea and smashing against it's surface, the sun shining down on her mercilessly.

The salt seeped into the wound, making her scream underwater as she quickly rose up and looked around. Behind her was one pipe, one out of the three that she had seen in that open room, probably giving her even more time. She couldn't stop thinking about Eric however, and praying to whatever god was watching over them that nothing had happened to him. Worried sick, and with a knot in her throat, she swum her way to the near coast, even with her leg screaming in agony.

She trudged to the shore, panting heavily, and laid on her stomach. When all was finally said and done, the adrenaline slowly flowed out of her system and she realized she was safe for the time being, only then did she proffer a wail of pain and loss as she mourned for Eric's sacrifice. She was unsure of whether he was ok, or if he was dead already. She could feel his presence, but feared that any moment it would just snuff out forever.

She stayed there for a few minutes, kicking the sand and getting all the tears out. Even if she was in a situation of life or death, she just couldn't help it, her hatred having been reignited and fueled to an even higher degree. However, she knew very well she could not achieve her revenge and find Eric alone… and so did what he had told her. After sneaking further inland and having gotten herself lost in those woods, she spotted, not too far away, the front of a luxurious mansion, quickly identifying it as the place where they had been kept for… lord knew how long. Knowing there was no time to waste, she closed her eyes and focused on her friends, feeling their presences far away… gripping them, wishing with all her heart they didn't go away as she reached out with all she had.

* * *

Back at the Kaiser household. They had tried to go back to normal. Hadrim and Luca had a hard time convincing the humans to not call the authorities, which had broken them a bit apart since the Pokémon didn't explain the why behind that, mostly because the last they wanted was to make the humans worry. Not because they would kick them out or anything, but because they knew them and how protective they could get of everyone. They would not hear any warnings the two adult Pokémon would give them about the dangers and call the authorities and even hire a team of explorers for protection. That would draw unwanted attention to them and also stress all of them out, and those two were the last they needed at the moment.

Luna was as distant as ever, if not by body she was almost constantly silent. Luca was always looking the news channel in case any information was shown. Hadrim was constantly surveying the area with his psychic in case there was any disturbance in the psychic waves that would give away any attempt at communication. Emily was worried, seeing Dust so out of character. The golden Riolu was jumpy everyday and spent them either on the backyard beating the bark out of a tree or out in the forest doing god knows what.

The humans were also trying to go back to their routines and wait. Clara was almost as Luca, keeping her attention on the news channel. Daniel had to go back to work and Ichiro was similar to Luna, with the difference that he spent time with the Pokémon to make them company if they wanted it. Most of the Team Star members were devastated however, Nox having taken his training to an absurd extreme, always waking up really early, like Eric used to do, Zed was giving it his all when it came to try and walk again, Lucy's static electricity was incredibly high, and anyone who got close to her was likely to get zapped. Out of all of them however, Serge had it the worst however, as he was locked up in his room most of the day, stretching and doing exercises, trying to convince Zed that he was in perfect condition to fly around, but the Zorua kept telling him that it'd be too risky.

Jake though, seemed to be completely fine, sleeping soundly and eating normally, ignoring the misery around him and instead burying his nose into many books and looking things up on the computer. However, this attitude had certain Riolu growling almost every time he saw the Sneasel. As he was about to go back, outside, he saw the ice type sitting in front of the computer. ' _Stuck to Galvanet as always…_ ' He thought to then sigh, trying to calm himself. ' _Maybe I should ask before judging._ ' He did just that and approached Jake. "Hey. You've been surfing a lot lately. Would be nice to make public knowledge of what are you doing?" He asked. His tone of voice and words making it sound less friendly that what the shiny originally intended.

Jake however, didn't answer, his eyes glued to the screen as he typed away at the computer, eyes glancing up and down and flickering, using the touchpad to navigate with ease, and inadvertently ignored Dust's question.

The golden jackal sighed. "Why do I even bother to ask?" He commented out loud, a little snarl on his muzzle as he walked past the sneasel, ready to go back to his routine. "It's not like he's being troubled at all with this shit!" That comment was intended to be heard as silver eyes glanced accusingly at the ice type for an instant. Jake simply glanced up at him, and humphed.

"I won't answer to those stupid provocations… You shouldn't speak if you don't know what you're talking about." Was his answer, falling to his provocation anyways.

"Well. It's hard to tell if you are worried or troubled when you always wear that damned poker face. More so when I've seen you moving on as if the worst had already happened!" He voiced his assumptions on the ice type. "Honestly I'm wondering if you consider them friends or just someone that is there for a time." He added, spitting his thoughts as they came. Dust was heated and worried. Desperate and felt utterly impotent. All that summed up into a mass of frustration that had been the source of his behaviour during all this mess. His family and friends taken away by some sick bastards and lost somewhere in the world. It was only time before he finally snapped. Jake only happened to be the objective of this because of his seemingly uncaring attitude.

Jake glared at him, his fingers wiggling around and tapping the keyboard nervously. "I think you'd be better off shutting your mouth and leaving me to this." His tone was still calm, but it was obvious he wasn't pleased with the Riolu right now.

He just looked aside. "Pse. Fine. Just wanted to know what has you so glued to the red." He said. Jake growled and flipped the computer right then and there, having gotten tired of the Riolu's snark. What Dust saw were multiple windows with several maps of the islands, reports about kindappings from the past five years and articles about an organization called 'Team Arena'.

"I haven't found all I'd like… but I have an idea of who our enemy is. Are you satisfied now?"

Dust eyes shot wide open as he saw that. The Riolu shook his head and sighed realizing he had been a royal bitch to the ice type after telling himself to not judge him. "You're right…

I should've held my tongue with what I said." He admitted, lowering his head in shame.

He wasn't the only one surprised by this tho, since no one knew of what the Sneasel was doing, Luna was aying on the couch and rose her head when Jake explained what he was doing.

"I'm sorry for doubting you." Dust ended it there. Whether the ice type accepted it or refused to forgive him was his thing, albeit he didn't have time to answer, as a faint voice echoed in the heads of every single Team Star member.

" _Is… anyone there? It's me, Elly! I'm alive!_ " Everyone in the house sprung up as Lucy screamed the Eevee's name, and Jake looked at Hadrim with his eyes.

"Hadrim, can you amplify her words?!"

On the Kaiser side, Lucy's scream was a surprise that made everyone look at where the sound of her voice came. Then the Espeon looked at Jake and felt the psychic waves, detecting and recognizing a connection and nodded. " _Elly?_ " He asked as he reached to her waves gently. " _Connect with me so I can spread your words to everyone better._ " He asked her and as soon as he felt the requested connection he did the proper with the rest.

It took just a few minutes, but eventually Elly could be heard in everyone's heads. " _I don't… enough time… Eric stayed behind to save me… I need someone to get me… out of here!"_ Everyone's hopeful glances immediately fell, and they could hear screaming from the first floor. Serge was shouting incoherently. " _I… Serge… please calm down… I don't know where I am, I… I see a house, a mansion… let's see if I can…_ " Using her psychic link, she sent them the exact image she was staring at right now, the mansion's front and the roof, and they heard more noises from Serge's room.

" _Look… I need to… Hide… Please someone… just help me, please…_ " Her pleads were lost to the aether as the connection weakened gradually, and everyone shouted and started to get her back.

" _Elly? Elly!_ " Hadrim tried to reach for her, but growled. "Damn! Lost her!" He spat.

Jake immediately went to work on the computer, mashing the mansion's description into the search bar, while Serge kept making noise above. "Someone please go check on whatever he is doing and calm him down! We're onto something!"

"I'll go." Dust said. The Riolu went to the upper floor and to the room, not bothering to knock. As the Kaiser Pokémon gathered around the computer, Jake kept on looking, everyone present from Team Star looking at the search results… Nox was the one to see it.

"That one! That one! That's the one!" The cursor skipped over to the image, opening it up and confirming the fact that is was the mansion Elly had showed them. Jake opened the page, but couldn't find any useful information about the island it was located on…

"That's Renol Island. North east from ours." Luca was the one to recognize the landscape and identify the place. They heard more noises from the floor above them, and then they stopped, everyone interpreting it as Dust managing to calm down Serge.

"How are we going to get there? They could get her again before we even reach the place!" Luna said from the back of the group.

"I can run there. I bet you I can run there…"

"No, we must think this logically, otherwise we could suffer the same fate… we need to make a plan, and…" He was cut off as Nox pounced him, getting ahead of Zed himself, who had been at the verge of shouting at Jake.

"We don't have the time! She's desperate, didn't you hear her?! We need to get there right now!"

The Sneasel sighed, looking at the ground. "Alright, we'll come up with a plan on our way there… someone call down Serge and Dust so we can tell them." Lucy was the one to carry out his orders, blitzing up the stairs with a confident smile on her face… but what she saw inside the room made her heart sink, and that smile faded away as quickly as it came.

The window was wide open. Bandages were sprawled across the floor. And Serge and Dust were nowhere to be found. "Lucy? Where are you, bring them down here!" Their voices were clearly audible from down there… meaning Serge had overheard on what island the mansion was…

And gone there himself with Dust on a rescue mission.


	21. Chapter 20 - Humanity's Focus

**Chapter 20**

 **Humanity's Focus**

It had probably been a few hours since Elly had contacted the others through telepathy, but time seemed to have slowed to a crawl after the most important pokémon in her life had been taken away. How long had it been since she'd last felt it? That creeping sensation of loneliness, of worthlessness, of pure, agonizing doubt. Where was Eric? Was he ok? Was he being tortured as she lay there among the grass and filth, trying to avoid detection from those search parties? If there was one thing she'd gained from her trip down the sewage, it was the removal of her natural scent in exchange for a much fouler one, which had kept her hidden from the sniffing hounds they had released: dog pokémon and normal dogs alike, pacing around the forest searching for her incessantly.

"That thing's got to be around here somewhere… This is so stupid, why does he want them alive anyways?!" A soldier asked, frustrated by the fact they'd been sent on a search mission for what he thought to be a stupid pokémon.

"Something about them holding the key to neutralizing the dark matter's negative effects… Guy's been going on and on about that shit like it's gonna change the world for the better, thinks he's Albert friggin' Einstein… For like Frankenstein though! Those things down on the third level are the living proof of that!" The guard laughed at the tasteless joke, which made Elly back away in order to prevent herself from pouncing the detestable human.

"Yeah, those things make me sick… But it takes a special type of sick to turn kids into those monsters. Why the fuck do they do that anyways? Can't they just like, be happy with the money they get and the fact there's less and less of those freaks on this planet? Serves them right: running around, attacking people just because they look at them, cursing them to join their ranks… Monsters, that's what they are."

"Yeah, I honestly don't give a shit. I got a paycheck on my account every month, my family's safe and not starving, I'm a happy man. And I even get to knock two or three of those things out of this world, so what's not to like?" With every word, nod and laughter those two uttered, her blood boiled more and more. Money. That's what it always came down to: to become richer, to have a better life, even if you had to use others as stepping stones. But to know that they enjoyed this senseless bloodshed… her irate state wasn't enough to make her pounce them, and instead kept backing off from the duo, both in order to avoid detection and to keep herself from attacking them.

However, she didn't account for the foliage to end behind her, and backed up right into the open, realizing the severity of her mistake when a dog started barking, calling out her position to the two guards she'd been listening to for the past minutes. They ran after her, one of them reaching for his radio while the other pointed his gun at the Eevee, who tried to limp away, her black sphere shooting up and smashing a black Riolu fist into his chin, knocking the gun away and then hitting the other guard with a back handed blow. It was too late however, as all the soldiers were flocking to the area, all of them readying their rifles and aiming at the Eevee. She was surrounded from virtually every angle, holding up frail psychic barriers.

Deep inside, she knew she wasn't going to get anywhere: her attempt to communicate with the others had only given away her position near the mansion, and after that it'd been impossible to get away. Security was too tight, and she'd been caught in the net. A soldier with a badge on his chest stepped up, gripping a large pistol and pointing at her. "Lower the barriers. We will not attempt to kill you. We want you **alive** , Eevee." His finger wasn't on the trigger, but he was still pointing at her. She remembered the scientists saying they wanted both her and Eric alive… hence why the Riolu was still in that world. She bit her lip, hoping that at least her message had gotten to her friends and silently accepted her fate. She was physically and psychologically exhausted, feeling frustrated that Eric's sacrifice had been for naught.

"We're putting a psychic repression collar when we get her inside… and I wouldn't mind to have a few rounds with her." One of the search pokémon, a Pyroar with a leash around his neck, smiled. "It's hard to not get excited when you're chasing a female the whole morning." She gagged as she looked away from him, utterly disgusted, and as she was pushed around and ordered to move, she turned to face him.

"Why are you doing this?! You're one of us!"

"I get fed. I get to survive those experiments. And I get to enjoy some pokémon in a more intimate level from time to time… What's not to like?"

"That means you're just no better than a normal animal!" Her screams were answered by the weight of his paw crushing her head against the dirt, the company stopping as he growled and laughed.

"So what? I get to enjoy what life I had, while you idealistic shits get to rot away in cages. Get your facts straight: humans are superior, plain and simple. So get down, lick their feet, and you survive. That's all I want, and that's all I'll do here, now, and forever: cheat." He stomped her once. "Repress." He elicited a howl of pain from her, the wind blowing with strength. "And survive!" He hit her with strength, the Eevee trying to summon her dark matter blob, only for a warning shot to be fired, not even close to forming a shape with it as she rolled away on the dirt.

"Are you two done? Come on, let's get inside!" Another soldier's shouts echoed in her ears, her right front leg was screaming in agony, now sure that her leg was going to get infected from earlier. They grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, the wind now roaring, shaking the leaves and twigs, almost as if a storm was about to break out right on top of their heads. "Oh brilliant, another thunderstorm… There weren't any clouds in the sky just a second ag-" The soldier shouted and fired to the air.

Elly's eyes couldn't process what happened around her as the soldier's gun and some of his fingers were cut clean off, an aura sphere hit the Pyroar and forced him to release Eevee and a pair of giant claws grabbed her and lifted her off the ground, gunfire whistling around them as they moved in circles and around the air. If she blinked, she moved the precise and quick movements as she was hoisted further and further up in the air.

The shout of a familiar voice shouting to get away reached her ears as a green aura sphere flew towards the group on the ground. Before a golden head appeared, silver eyes looking at her for a moment.

"Hold on!" Her world shook again as Dust was forced to grab onto whatever he was on, the owner's voice forcing them to go much much higher… and the grip around her body went loose as she rocketed up into the air, adrenaline kicking in as her eyes went wide open and she screamed, falling down… "Catch her!" The voice ordered in the wind, increasing in volume.

Dust looked up from his position and saw her falling. The shiny Riolu reaching to her with both paws, catching the Eevee and then cowering down to avoid the flying bullets hitting them and held tightly, using an arm to hold Elly secured by his side. "Alright, grab her tight!" She looked in front of them, and saw Serge's familiar feathers, the Pidgeot turning around to face her before shouting, diving down and spinning wildly with them on his back, the Eevee reaching to grab his feathers in a desperate attempt to not fly off from the motion, as Dust tightened his grip on her.

"Open fire! Open fire!" The bullets whistled past them as Serge kept dodging, missing them by mere inches as he moved to get the trees in the way of their sights. The sea appeared beneath them as he flew off into the sunset, panting heavily as he looked back above his cargo, then looked at Elly.

"Hey, hey are you alright Elly?" The concern in his voice was genuine, something that almost brought Elly to tears, simply nodding and unable to say anything else but whimper in gratitude.

"Hold on. We're getting you home." Dust said to her, then he rose his head and looked behind them. Meanwhile, back on the ground, some soldiers were trying to aim at the squirming Pidgeot, the wind's intensity finally dying down, swearing as what seemed to be pure chance had made it so the wind kicked up and increased the drift.

"Damn it. Call the elites and send pokémon after them! You have to shoot him down!" The soldier in charge shouted at one of his subordinates, who immediately reached for the radio and called the higher ups.

"What's the problem? Can't we just, let them fly away? There's no way they could've contacted help without any communication devices." The soldier's question was responded by an audible slap from his superior, making the lower ranking one stand straight as he was shouted at.

"You idiot! They have psychic capabilities! They contacted one of their friends to come rescue them, and they did! They know the location of this lab! If they get away, god knows what will happen!"

"Sir! They're sending the pokémon out, th-" A roar silenced them as four winged pokémon flew out from the mansion's entrance, all of them taking off after the escapees.

"Kill them! Don't let them give away our position!"

( **Lightning Battle - Kid Icarus Uprising** )

Serge saw them coming from the island, and swore under his breath. "We've got company! Hold on tight! Dust call them out to me!" The Pidgeot flapped his wings and leant forward, increasing in speed as he went even faster than when he'd carried Dust over to that island.

Dust looked behind them and as he saw them approaching. ' _Braviary, Skarmory_ , _Talonflame and…_ _ **a fucking Hydreigon**_ _!?_ ' He told himself to identify their airbond enemies. "Fucking great!" He cursed.

"What?! What do y-" Serge's questions were interrupted as a hyper beam soared past their heads, threatening to blow a hole in their chests and hitting the water, a massive water geyser rising up, forcing the flying type to dodge to the side as he threatened to crash into it. "Fuck me! Dust, turn around and tell me what's going on, I need to focus on flying the hell out of here!" His speed increased exponentially as the wind blew from behind them, his wings leaving trails as he soared through the air at his highest speed, the water rippling underneath them, the wind slapping and trying to push them off. The chase was on.

The Riolu did that, immediately throwing an aura sphere at the Talonflame, who had a fire ball ready to shot and another at the Braviary, that tried to get close. "We got company, and one's a fucking Hydreigon." The Riolu informed, eyes on his opponents, throwing to them more spheres.

"Oh fucking fantastic! Alright, Elly hold on please, this is going to get hectic!" He looked behind them and veered to the left as the stray fireball blew up, embers and smoke falling on their heads as he narrowly avoided it, continuing on his flight path. The Eevee's grip was strong, but she could feel her strength draining, the exhaustion and the growing infection on her leg getting to her spirit.

The Dragon type was charging up another laser, Dust warning of this as he tried to break the dragon's concentration with another ball, but it dodged the projectile, firing of its own. "Incoming!" Dust roared, getting hold again on his friend. Holding Elly once again as he turned back forwards. Serge dived down as the beam seared his feathers, making him lose his straightness from the sheer speed, but quickly recovered and kept on his collision course to the water, seeing if any of those four would crash against it surface as he quickly spread his wings and curved to the front, a blast of wind hitting the water as they returned to their flightpath, flying so close to the water they were leaving a trail on it.

Holding onto Serge for dear life, Dust looked back, seeing the others. The Braviary had slowed down, on its focus to get to Serge it hadn't seen the distance with the water, the others corrected their paths to keep the chase. The Skarmory flapped its wings, metallic feathers flying towards them at high speeds. Dust summoned an aura bone and spun it with his paws, the feathers colliding with the solidified aura either bouncing off, stabbing into it or being parried. After that, Dust threw the bone at them with all his strength. The Braviary got hit on a shoulder and went down into the water, body rolling across it's surface like a rag doll as it tumbled and came to a screeching halt, then sinking underneath.

' _That's one down._ ' He thought, yet there were three more to take care of. He looked at Serge, and then at Elly, seeing her tired and that nasty cut on her leg, he bit his lip. "Hey, listen. Hold on just a bit more. We are going to take you home and then we'll get back and save the others, ok?" He said to her, trying to encourage her to keep her grip and to stay awake. He then saw an opportunity. "Serge! Fly over The Inaccessible!" He shouted at the Pidgeot. With luck the winds of the place would throw their pursuers off if they even dared to go over that island, and the golden jackal tried to not think of the worst that could happen there.

Serge looked at the island and nodded, his wings glowing as he kept the wind blowing in directions that benefited them, getting closer to the water as the island appeared in their view. "Dust! Use your hidden power and make something to block them! Quick!" He could see the Talonflame wrapping itself in flames and blitzing forward through the intense gusts, trying to tackle them and outright kill them.

The Riolu bent over the Pidgeot's side and extended a paw, sending his aura into the water with the short distance between his paw and the surface, being almost the same than with his surfing board. It was hard but after a moment a column of water rose suddenly, the fire type bird slamming right into it not expecting that, its fire dying before he was taken down. The Hydreigon dodged everything they threw at it. He would've continued if not because they flew over a whirlpool that cut his connection with the water, signaling they were close to the risks of the island. Dust went back up and checked on Elly, hoping she was still hanging there, to then look at the last of their pursuers. She was, but was growing weaker, not holding onto his feathers anymore

The island's irregular winds were making it hard for the three headed dragon to fly straight, yet the bastard made sure to slow them down firing a Hyper Beam from each of its heads to slow them down. "Incoming **by three**!" Dust roared seeing the attack. The three beams directed right on their flightpath. Once again leaving the offensive to hold himself and their friend tightly. ' _Come on! That gotta leave the bastard tired as hell!_ ' He thought since Hyper Beam was not an easy move to pull out, even less three at the same time.

Serge flew up and rolled, the beam hitting the water right underneath them and blowing up, water splashing as the light blinded them for just a moment, the stormy sky above them darkening. The other two blasted beside them, crossing in front of them as a massive explosion sounded off in front of them, forcing Serge to get even closer to the water, drops of it splashing on their faces as his wing grazed it. The heat from the explosion reached them and was quickly replaced by the wave of water that crashed down on them, forcing Serge to quickly flap his wings and regain his altitude before he fell down. "Damn it, that was too close!"

"Close enough for me." Dust commented as he concentrated, another column of water shooting up from the sea to hit the Hydreigon, who dodged again, making the Riolu curse. But what happened next surprised him. More columns, replicas to his own, rose from the sea following their path, the three headed dragon gasping and trying to dodge each one. Dust could feel a strange aura behind those pillars, but he shook his head to dismiss that distraction, it wasn't the moment nor the time, he had to focus on the fight. He fired an Aura sphere as he saw the dragon dodge to one side of a water pillar, the only attack that connected with it, yet it kept on the chase, even with a burnt mark on its left neck's side.

The winds blew strong from one side, then the other, then a rising current that was followed by a downwards one. Such was the madness of The Inaccessible's surroundings. The whirlpools that surrounded the coast of the island being the actual frontier to this chaos. Serge found it difficult to even make it to the actual islands, and the pokémon on his back were struggling too, Elly slowly losing her grasp on his feathers. Dust readied another attack, but he noticed the Eevee moving. Looking at her then he saw her slipping off. "Shit!" Dismissing his attack he held onto her tightly, to the point of getting on top of her and holding her with his body. "Serge we need to land!" He called. "Elly's out of strength!" The Riolu added, securing her with his body he wouldn't be able to attack at their pursuer, turning his head to look back at the Hydreigon, what he saw was a barrage of metallic feathers flying their way courtesy of the Skarmory, who he had forgotten at all thanks to their other foe. "Fuck! Feathers incoming!"

Serge looked back and nodded, diving down and swooping across the surface of the island. Elly's forehead was hot with a fever, breathing heavily and panting, her eyelids feeling heavy. She was tired, and her head was pounding. Dust looked back, their pursuers hot on their tails. If they wanted to hide they'd have to find a way to lose them. The Riolu looked forwards and around, looking for wherever could be a good hiding place and also a way to lose them. The thunder rumbled above, threatening to fall on them at any moment. Looking back again he saw the three headed dragon reading another triple Hyperbeam. ' _Shit! Fuck! Curse the damned Bastard!_ ' He thought and looked around and then saw they were soaring over a forest. "Serge! Undercover!" He called.

( **Stop the music)**

Serge spotted the trees and dived down, then quickly snuck in between the trees, disappearing from their sights. The storm was starting to pick up, and rain was pouring down on the island, the chaotic weather conditions clearly showing the ugliest and most powerful results right above their heads. With almost robotic efficiency the Skarmory dived in after Serge, while the Hydreigon glided above, scouting from the top while preparing more Hyper Beams. Serge landed on a patch of dirt, exhausted, and shook his head. "Get off. Now. Get her to safety." The Eevee's gaze was lost in the sky, on the verge of losing consciousness.

Dust slid off his back and then picked up Elly in his arms, she lay there limply, whispering pleads for Serge to not go alone and trying to convince them she was ok, her voice nothing but a faint trail of the burning will and anger that raged within. The sound of twigs snapping was heard, alarming them to their pursuers' proximity, and Serge looked at Dust, his eyes repeating his previous orders. The Riolu nodded and for once reached to the other with his aura, like his mother used with humans. " _You try not to die._ " He said as he started to move away carrying Elly. Priority now was stealth and find somewhere to hide. It was a hard task to go unnoticed while carrying someone but the Riolu had his ears standing painfully on end as he slipped through trees and roots, trying to not leave a trail behind, the Riolu used the roots as stepping stones and moving from tree to tree, until he thought they were a good distance away and he decided it was safe to quit that precaution, yet he had to find a place for them to hide until Serge could pick them up again.

Serge gave him a thumbs up with his wing, then covered their escape as they vanished into the shadows, looking around the clearing. His wings were glowing, the wind around him calm and still, making sure he wasn't distracted by anything that wasn't his foes. He could see the damn dragon type looming above, those dreaded Hyper Beams searching for a target to disintegrate… but the Skarmory was probably tracking him down in the woods… and it wouldn't be long before it found him.

Meanwhile, Dust kept moving, every now and then looking at Elly in the eyes. The Eevee was clearly exhausted. He hugged her for a moment, not losing sight of his way. As the forest became less and less thick, he saw a mountain before him, and a big cave. After looking at it for a moment he decided to take the place, the darkness would hide them, and the cave itself would keep them dry, if only he could start a fire to warm up, but that was completely out of the question. The Riolu walked up the hill leading to the cave and went in. He used his aura sight to see in the darkness, It surprised him how much clear could he see the aura of that place, but it was helpful for him. If not, he would've have rolled down the dirt that formed another hill within the cave. He walked down carefully until the floor was even again, and then he set Elly down carefully and knelt by her side. He decided to inspect her a bit, her body was warm, too warm, and her wound looked nasty. He didn't need to be a medical expert to know that it was infected, and that the infection was making her ill. ' _Damnit! Just what we needed!_ ' He thought to himself but then shook his head and breathed in deep.

He looked all over her body for other injuries, finding bruises and burns all over her body and underneath her fur, but they were very minor when compared to the open cut. After the inspection he sat by her and carefully put her head on his lap and a paw on her forehead. His paw slowly felt cool to the touch as he controlled his ice punch to just cool off his fur and skin. he couldn't breath icy winds like his mother but he hoped this would be enough, with his cool paw he tried to fight her fever, the only thing that was left was wait for Serge. "I… I promise you Elly. We'll take you home. We'll help you recover and once you recover we will go back and save the others. Even if we have to fight our way out. We will save them." He said to her, the only thing he thought he could do for her aside from trying to cool her body. She could only blabber incoherently in response, his words somehow reaching her, moving her head on his hip, trying to nod in agreement, but feeling her strength as it seeped out of her.

* * *

The sound of twigs snapping behind Serge brought him back to reality and quickly threw a slash, blocking the other's wing as it came through the brush, both of their eyes locking. Serge's were full of fire and determination, the Skarmory's were empty, like a robot's. In that single instant did Serge feel a small hint of pity creep up on him: whatever they had been put through that had made them into these soul less machines… he'd make sure it'd never happen again.

( **The Stains of Time - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance** )

With a roar they pushed back against the other, claws sliding on the dirt as they struck their wings again, walking sideways and edging close to each other as they tried to push the other's wing out of the way. Serge was the first to lower his wing, the Skarmory's flying by as he ducked and then strike at his chest. Though his quills were made out of metal, the flying and normal type's limb cut through them like butter, blood surging from the open wound as it shouted, alerting it's teammate. With remarkable speed, Serge took off through the trees, ducking and weaving between the logs and stumps as the expected barrage of Hyper Beams rained down, explosions and debris flying off as he escaped. With the last beam he did wingover, quickly shooting upwards towards the dragon type and folded his wings, attempting to slice one of its heads off.

However, the Skarmory shot back up to him and stopped the blow, leaving him open to another beam before he fell down because of gravity, recovering and flying away again. The rain was making it even harder to spot what was actually in front of him, let alone the smoke from the Hyper Beams and the fire beneath that was being fought against by the rain. He lead them outside of the main island, where they were hiding, and took them back to the spikes, where the water pillars were still raising and lowering. He decided to stick close to the water and maneuvered around the pillars, attempting to make the Skarmory, who was hot on his heels, crash into them. The part steel type didn't miss a beat, however, and dodged them with the same, if not more effectively than the Pidgeot.

Knowing this, he smiled and flew up, letting him catch up… and then quickly rolled to the right, making the Skarmory follow him until they were both doing circles in the air, approaching a pair of spikes that were incredibly close. The darkness made it almost impossible to make them out, but a lucky lightning bolt gave out the position and arrangement of the spikes to Serge, including the small gap within them. He made a mad dash for them, feeling those iron feathers whistling past him, barely touching his own, and then at the last possible second folded his wings and twisted his body, becoming a literal bullet as he passed through the needle hole. Lightning struck just as the Skarmory reached the spikes, too late to react, and smashed into them head on.

The impact knocked it out of the air, barely conscious, and the Hydreigon spotted Serge swooping down, one final lightning strike making it possible to see the Pidgeot diving down with a wing on the ready, and the next instant he was through the Skarmory, a fountain of liquid surging out from the steel type's body as it plummeted down to the watery depths. The dragon type roared and fired indiscriminately, the beams soaring past the Pidgeot as they reached his general vicinity in near instants. The only thing saving him at that point was his own unpredictable patterns. Without Lucy's abnormal reflexes, he couldn't possibly dodge those things without using his own agility in the air. That's how it'd always been, he was king in the air: unpredictable, nobody knew when he'd strike… and this time was no different.

He flew close to the water, reaching shore and landing near one of the spikes, catching his breath and wiping theblood from his left wing. They were both sore, and he felt numb pain on his chest, but could easily keep going, even with the exhaustion from flying for such long times and at such high speeds.

Not far away from there, a ship was sailing its normal route. On the deck, a bunch of tourists were looking at The Inaccessible, bearing witness to the chaos of the island's climate, while the speakers enhanced the voice of a man that was talking about the island itself, explaining the only things they knew about it. The tourists were picking photos and even a local took the opportunity to take a video of the phenomenon with its phone. The Hydreigon saw this, and glared at the phone, and the center head opened its maw, light surging from it as it charged another Hyper Beam. Serge's eyes went wide open, and quickly ran from behind the pillar and swung his glowing wing at the monstrous pokémon, an intense blast of wind making the shot go wide as it trailed across the surface of the water, explosions going off as it traveled. The other two heads however, were charged up, and while one took aim at the now revealed Pidgeot, the other aimed at the ship again, panic spreading among the humans.

The bird rushed down the slope and took off, doing a barrel roll around the incoming beam and tackling the Hydreigon onto the ship with a roar of his own, both of them falling on the deck. The Hydreigon crashed and broke some of the boards, scaring off most of the humans while some pulled out phones and began recording. Serge readied his wings and swung at one of the heads, which simply weaved out of the way and headbutted him, whilst the other tried to bite into his neck, being met with a backhanded slash from his other wing as he stepped back, the fangs being cut clean off and blood surging from its maw and the Pidgeot's wing. Only a minor scratch.

What happened next however, quite literally shook their world and rocked the boat they were on.

Humans started to shout and point at the island as the spikes glowed intensely with that same light green glow Serge's wing emitted whenever he manipulated the wind, and as the glow reached its apex beams of the same light shot up into the stormy clouds above, meeting above and beyond their viewing range… and the winds suddenly roared and stormed around them as the ship veered and shook, the humans running inside the hull, some of them remaining where they stood. Whether they were foolish or brave was anyone's guess, but the twister forming above their heads wasn't. The cone slowly slithered its way down to the water, making movement much harder as they all felt the suction, but it wasn't until it touched the water that the real force of the wind manifested itself. They were a ways away from it, and even then the force was enough to yank most of the humans off of where they stood, smashing against the safety railings and hanging on for dear life whilst the ones on the other side grabbed onto the side of the boat, their phones pointed at the two pokémon.

It was pouring down, and visibility was poor. The multicolored feathers on his head waved with the wind, the rain hitting his back and lightning strikes making it hard to make out things except for those few instants of light, but Serge could clearly see the Hydreigon struggling to reach him, running against the wind's force and stomping down, leaving marks on the wood as it set out to accomplish its goal… whilst the Pidgeot was just standing there, unaffected by the wind, his right wing glowing intensely to counter the tornado's gust. One of the heads lunged at his neck, and it was only met by another precise slice, opening a nasty cut on its cheek, and the pokémon tumbled back, hanging on by the force of its legs and charging up one last Hyper Beam with its centrical head… which was denied by the Pidgeot's wing again, mercilessly cutting that head's eyes, rendering it blind and making it fall backwards, biting down on the rails and bending them out of shape as it hung on for dear life, the humans screaming in panic and excitement.

The other two heads then did what their masters had instructed them, rather than following what any sane pokémon had done in their place, and charged up a Hyper Beam, then immediately disengaged from the railing, aiming at Serge and moments away from firing and blowing the entire place to dust.

"Go to hell." Were the last words it heard from the Pidgeot as two silver lines traced the air around it.

( **Stop the music** )

Two cuts appeared on the railing, besides the main head, and the fragment flew off, and with it, that warped pokémon, who roared and tried to flap its tired wings in vain as it was sucked up into the twister, and out of sight. Whether he was dead or alive was inconsequential to Serge. With that one roar that echoed in his head above the rage of the wind around them, he closed his eyes and breathed in, finally allowing himself to rest. He immediately felt his feet give way, falling down as he coughed up blood, an intense migraine taking hold of his head as he fell to his knees. The twister started moving away, the intensity of the winds diminishing as it carried away the cloudy skies with it, giving way to a clear orange sky, the winds dying down.

Everyone on the boat was surprised by what had happened, yet the reactions were different. One shouted for help for the Pidgeot, while others stood there and a third group rushed to his aid as well. Not only humans but also Pokémon were around, and it was mostly the Pokémon who approached the Pidgeot, some eyeing humans, others fully concentrated on helping the avian in whichever way they could. Various healing moves were casted upon him if only to help him stay stable. As things settled down, those that had recorded the entire thing and had also taken pictures didn't waste more time in uploading them to PokeTube, or sending them to the Regional News' website.

The Pidgeot's ears were ringing after all of that, but he could feel the claws and paws rubbing on his body, his migraine leaving him in a short few minutes of just breathing in and out looking at those pokémon, exchanging smiles, nods and words of reassurement, telling them that everything would be fine. After he felt he was good enough, he stood back up, towering above all and any pokémon or human in that ship, giving his back to the sun, then turning around to look at the island. He looked down at the pokémon and smiled, walking away from the mob and spreading his wings, once again lifting up a bit of wind before taking off, thanking them all as he departed to meet up with Dust and Elly, and finally take them all back home with that glorious sun.

* * *

The noise of the Television was like a distant, unintelligible noise to her. Luca was laying on the couch, her eyes on the ceiling as she sighed. She should've known it would happen. Dust was never one to stay still when he could help somehow. "Still worried about him?" Hadrim asked her, the Espeon cuddling by her side, both of them occupying the entirety of the couch.

"Don't tell me you are not, Had. I can feel you just want to link with his mind and teleport to him." She answered, making him snort slightly. He found it funny, whether she was reading his aura or she just knew him enough to tell that. Probably the second since she was more concentrated on her thoughts.

"Touche." He said. "But both of us know he can handle himself and being with Serge I'm positive they'll be back soon."

She just sighed for this, looking at the Television.

"And that's all for now. We will keep info-" The anchorman stopped his tracks as he was about to end the reports for the time being, and reach to one ear with a hand, probably something new incoming, which wasn't that rare. After a bit he looked back on screen. "Seems like we got more breaking news. At the moment various videos and images are being uploaded to our website about an attack on a ship on the outskirts of The Inaccessible, sent by witnesses of the scene." Having already everything ready to showcase, a video popped up on screen, showing a Hydreigon attacking a ship, but what made Luca and Hadrim stand was the Pokémon that interrupted the attack.

"What the fuck!?" Hadrim blurted out.

"Isn't that Serge!?" Luca spat, her voice loud enough to be heard all over the place. Her voice caught the attention to everyone, specially Jake, who was sitting on the armchair beside them and slammed the laptop shut, tossing it on the cushiony surface and staring at the images. The sight of that Pidgeot in the middle of that mob was confusing at first, but he was obviously Serge. Everyone else in the household ran it quickly and looked at the news.

"Yeah, that IS him! What the heck did he get himself into?! And where's Dust?!" Lucy's screams were summarizing everyone's thoughts, starting to worry again as the videos saw the wounded Pidgeot fly away into the distance… and nobody knew where to.

"Where's he going?!" Everyone edged close to the screen… and then the image shifted to the anchorlady, making everyone shout in annoyance and slight rage, specially Nox, who shouted obscenities at the screen.

As the anchors were talking about the news, the pictures of the fight were also being shown on a corner of the screen. "The direction… Is he flying **towards** The Inaccessible?" He asked.

"What? But the winds there are unpredictable! Let alone the entire climate! You just saw that twister!" Luca spoke up.

"Jake if the video is on the news I'm sure it'll be on PokéTube as well. You think you can find it?" The Espeon asked. "I can only think of one reason for him to get to that island."

Jake pounced on the armchair, showing a lot more emotion than ever before, and started hammering away at the keyboard and going to pokétube. To his amazement, the video is on the first page of the website, and has amassed thousands and thousands of views over the last few minutes. He calls everyone over and plays the video, which only shows the part of the fight that took place near the ship. The lighting and quality of the video made it almost impossible to see anything, but the familiar shape of the Pidgeot and a Hydreigon could be spotted in the shadows.

"Yeah! Fuck him up Serge, show him what you're made of!" Nox cheered for him, even if the video was pre-recorded. When the light beams shot up from the pillars, however, Jake looked at the Kaisers, inquiring about this phenomena.

"That Island has an aura of its own. It's like it's alive itself." Was all the explanation Luca could give him. "That's what I've read and what I've felt the times we've gotten close to it."

"So if you use anything like magic or abilities it just reacts? But… Serge can't use magic! How the hell did all of that happen?!" Lucy's question only made Jake frown.

"...How can you be so sure about that, Lucy?" Was all he answered, his own question confusing everyone.

"Damnit, there has to be a full video of it." Hadrim cursed the liking humans and even other Pokémon get for only the action bits of a video. However, before the Espeon could even concentrate on the keyboard of the laptop a noise reached his ears. It was the sound of something crashing through leafs, large wings flapping and someone landing on the ground outside in the backyard..

Outside, the two Pokémon they were talking about had arrived. Dust immediately slipped off Serge's back and picked Elly up, then ran to the door, smashing it. Luca was already on her way to it as she heard the banging of the door. She opened it and saw Dust holding Elly in his arms. "Please, scold me later, now she needs help." Her son didn't let her talk as he ran inside past her. Luca was stunned out of words, and not because of the stench that her nose had caught, as Dust rushed inside and upstairs calling for Zed's help for Elly. First thing he wanted to do was get her help and somewhere she could rest.

As Dust came into the house everyone saw the Eevee in his arms. They all called out her name as they rushed to check on her. Jake was the first one to spot the infected wound, and immediately called Zed's attention to it, and the Zorua got to work, checking the wound, and asking Dust to put her down in a bed or anywhere so she could rest, ordering everyone around to bring him antibiotics, medicine, and everything in that house he could use to help her, even if he still struggled to run around.

They all still had to come out of the haze of Elly coming back so suddenly, so most forgot about the flying type that had rescued her until he came into the house, panting heavily and leaning on a wall just keep himself from falling down. As everyone set off to go for what he had asked, Hadrim spotted the Pidgeot and got to his side. "Need a paw?" He offered the avian, seeing him so tired. "I don't know if it was your idea or Dust's. What I do know is that it was foolish and that you two brought Elly back. That's a start and it seems you don't do very well without your usual naps." The smirk on his muzzle gave away the last joke, yet the offer to help him kept up.

Serge couldn't help but smile at that sentence, getting himself back to speed and over to the now free couch. "Hey, it's the least I can do… now, if you'll excuse me, I'd rather leave the complaints, shouting and question for after I wake up from unconsciousness. So…" The moment he laid down on the couch he passed out, clearly too tired to even consider the others. He had earned himself that rest though, even Jake agreed… but the ice type would hold him to that interrogation once he woke up. Dust on the other side had the nerves still pumping him through tiredness, meaning he was hysteric still, helping get medicine for Elly and also cold water and a cloth to put on her head and fight back the fever.

* * *

Far away, back inside that accursed laboratory, the guards and scientists were recovering from the recent breakout. Tensions were high, and the higher ups were bossing around their lackeys around trying to restore order. The Pokémon were rabid and enraged, as the news spread like wildfire: someone had escaped the lab, and shouts of revolution and hope were filling the halls, a desire to live and survive that hadn't been seen for a long time echoing in those hallways.

Eric wasn't there to watch them however. After their stunt and Elly's consequent escape, he'd been taken to a more secluded area of the prison. He had obtained a larger cage in the process, but shared the room with massive pokémon, like a Sceptile, a Charizard, and curiously enough another Riolu, whose arms were crossed, hiding deep cuts and marks. "So… you're the guy that has everyone in an uproar right now, eh?" Were the first words he ever heard from the fighting type as Eric was tossed into his cage unceremoniously, a pink eye from the beating he'd received.

"Yeah, well… not really. I tried to escape, didn't work out… but my mate did, and that's good enough for me." He stood back up and sat, looking at the Riolu whose cage was higher. "How'd you know?"

The Riolu's fur a light teal, with orange features wherever it should be black, a confident smirk on his face. He pointed at the speakers above them, shrugging and walking to the side of his cage. "Can't say I know how that feels… never had a mate. Girlfriends? Sure, tons of them, but actual mates and in a deep and meaningful relationship? Not even close." His behaviour was actually refreshing a nice break from the constant sadness and misery that had surrounded him in the other part.

"What's your name?"

"Oh, already asking me for names? Haven't even taken me to a first date yet…" Eric didn't necessarily find it funny, but his newfound friend still chuckled anyway. "Whatever, name's Phal, nice to meet you. I'd shake your paw but… I can barely lift these anyway."

"Nice to meet you Phal. Name's Eric." After they got introductions out the way and Phal properly "Welcomed him to hell", song and all, they both talked for a long time about their bleak condition. Phal had been there for quite a long time, and they'd been testing on his arms most of the time, hence why he could barely move them anymore.

"Assholes must've hit a nerve or something… don't expect to be swinging these anytime soon… but hey!" He kicked the air. "I can still kick butt! Literally!" He sat down, looking at the normal Riolu. "They're probably gonna do the same to you… they want to figure out how we channel aura and control it the way we do… so they can do whatever the fuck they want with it."

"Then they'll be shocked to see I'm not like the rest. I'll make them work for it." Phal smiled at his words, finding his determination admirable. Still, Eric had other questions for him. "And what do they want to do with it anyways? Aren't humans capable of achieving aura control on their own through training?" His questions were only answered with shrugs and 'beats me', which were accurate responses: as long as they got out alive and stopped them in their tracks, what did it matter? No explanation or reasoning could ever convince them that this senseless bloodshed was worth it.

As if on cue, scientists entered the isolated room and walked over to Eric's cage. He stood up and looked ready for a fight, but wasn't pulled out of the cage, instead the entire thing was carried away on a trolley, looking at his friend. "Looks like they want something with you man! Stay strong!" His cheers reached him even after he left the room, managing to flash him a smile and a thumbs up before he disappeared from view. He was taken through the twisting hallways and doors and finally ended up in what looked like an interrogation room. They opened the cage and shook him out, too tired to go back to fighting immediately. It had been very long since had last eaten and drunk anything.

The door shut behind him, and he knew he was stuck in that place until they were done with… whatever they wanted to do with him in there. He waited for what felt like hours, until finally the door opened again, and in walked a blond haired man he recognized immediately: the head scientist, Gherard. The human glanced at the pokémon, both of them exchanging glares that said volumes to the other, before the man walked over to the other side of the table and sat down, placing a box of salty snacks, two cups and a bottle of water on it, then sat down.

A good five minutes went by, the two staring at each other, until Gherard motioned at the opposite chair with his hand. "Please, take a seat." The tone of his voice seemed friendly at first, but Eric could feel the menacing undertones in it, and only glared at the human, who simply laughed. "You have no reason to trust me, specially after what you've seen here… but I've come here to talk."

"Talk with me? An animal? Sounds counter intuitive for your species." Eric spat back, his words earning him a bemused look.

"Well, unlike most of the humans here, I am a man of science…" He showed him his left ear, and the Riolu saw something that quite honestly shocked him: a small black device strapped to his ear which he recognized from when he had fought against that trainer back in a hotel: a translator. "And for this reason, I know that pokémon are perfectly sentient creatures, capable of talking."

That reveal came as a shock to him… but it also brought something else: uncontrollable rage, which seeped through his being, his teeth tattering. "...saying that doesn't make me want to talk with you. It just makes me want to strangle you."

"Just try it. Lay a finger on me and guards will come in to turn you into a swiss cheese. You're a valuable test subject, but in our hierarchy, I'm far more important than you'll ever be,... you should get used to it. Now… come, and sit down. There's much we must talk about." That menacing undertone had completely taken over the first half of his sentence, letting Eric know that this human wasn't to be trifled with. He walked up to the chair and say on it, still below the human's eye level, always looking down at him.

The human opened the water bottle and the bag of snacks, pouring him a glass of the liquid and putting the bag closer to him. Eric didn't dare touch either of the two, for fear that they'd be poisoned or with drugs, just like what the tried to force on the poor pokémon outside. Gherard rolled his eyes and showed him the contents of the bag. "Which one do you want me to take?" His question came through as strange to the Riolu, but he still pointed at one of them, the one that looked the most suspicious, with a strange shape… Gherard took it out and ate it in front of him, then poured himself water from the same bottle and drank it, showing him the full glass and then again when it was empty.

"There's nothing strange in either of these. You look famished, and having a conversation of such importance with an empty stomach." After this, Eric did drink water and eat the entire bag, replenishing his strength, all while the human stared at him with that massive shit eating grin. "Feeling better? Very well, now let's begin… What is your name? I'm Gherard, one of the two head scientists in this laboratory… Wipe that frown off your face, Riolu, I'm not the one at the head of the experiments your kind is enduring… I'm more focused on…

"The Dark Matter." Eric drily finished for him, leaving the other's mouth open as he uttered the same words.

"Why… yes. How did you know we called it that?"

"Because we also call it that. And I can tell you it's not something you should be messing with… Gherard." He struggled to pronounce his name because of the anger.

"What a coincidence… and who is we, mister…" He didn't finish that sentence because he still didn't know the Riolu's name, and the angry look on his face was an indication that he had no intentions of telling him. "I told you mine… it's only fair you'd tell me yours. Unless you don't have one…. e5e5e5 is a mouthful."

"Then just call me E5."

Gherard sighed in exasperation, leaning back on his chair and looking away, rubbing his chin whilst Eric looked in the opposite direction, intent on making this as hard as possible for the human and make him lose his cool temper. "Very well… E5 it is then. Now, you mentioned a we when you talked about the dark matter. I'm going to assume it was the Eevee you escaped with. You're related somehow, aren't you?" Eric's face shifted slightly, and Gherard read it. If there was one thing the man could do was read the movements on other's faces. "Your sister? Your mother? Your… lover?" He said the last one with a smile, and Eric snapped back to stare at him, making the smile grow wider. "Bingo."

"What the hell do you want to do with the Dark Matter? It'll only bring you and this world pain and destruction. I am dead serious when I say that you're all better off destroying… both pokémon AND humans." Gherard stared at the Riolu and leaned back, crossing his fingers as he put his shoulders on the table.

"E5… Do you know what sentience is?" The question caught the pokémon off guard, unsure of what he should answer. "Sentience, is, to some, what separates human and pokémon: some defend that pokémon aren't sentient creatures, but rather animals that go about their daily business without realizing that they exist in the first place, that the world happens around them, that changes constantly. That's what sentience means: to be aware of one's existence and surroundings."

He leaned forward. "Others, think that humans and pokémon are equals, and should both walk towards the future hand in hand… both outlooks are wrong in my opinion. I believe pokémon and humans to be different in many ways, with each species having its share of advantages and disadvantages. However, they key difference is that, unlike pokémon, humans have stepped up and aim to… shape the world around them." Once again, he earned himself a weird glance from the Riolu.

"See, pokémon are stranded at a strange in between: they are sentient enough to realize their own existence, to have their own culture and define themselves as… well, themselves. However, humans have always been one step ahead, and that is because we utilize our sentience to shape the world. We are aware of our condition: we merely exist on this physical plane, where all we can see, feel, touch, taste and smell is all there must be, while the existence of a more spiritual plane is debatable to some, whilst others outright deny it. Unlike pokémon, however, humans have decided to do… something about it."

He got up from his place and paced around the room. "Humans have evolved and progressed with the sole intention to shape the world around them. That is what makes us different: Pokémon adapt to the environment, but us humans adapt the environment to ourselves, we shape the world and change it to fit our interests. We build roads across continents to connect civilizations, construct machines to communicate across large gaps… Something that pokémon simply don't do. They instead remain passive, living in packs, and moving together, never aspiring to be something else."

Eric was speechless, thinking back on the pokémon they'd come across on that world: most were like that, others behaved like humans… but not quite. "It's because of this that we are so different, and some humans think we're infinitely superior to pokémon. However, you have the tools. The abilities pokémon possess are extremely powerful and valuable, and yet you don't take advantage of them… all of that wasted potential… If it were to fall in our hands… completely…"

Eric's head snapped up and looked at Gherard. "You want to find a way for humans to inherit pokémon abilities?!"

"And completely subjugate pokémon kind. Yes, you now understand the goal of Team Arena. Some in this organization desire for this, others only want money, recognition… or safety. We provide it all with this goal in mind: as long as they work towards it, we welcome anyone in our ranks." He sat back down, and that smiled disappeared. "But I'm not interested in any of that. Pokémon bore me on a scientific level: a mish mash of flesh and bone, no different than humans asides from those key differences. It's my colleague who is far more intrigued with your abilities… I want to know everything about the Dark Matter: how it's made, how you're invulnerable to it, how to exploit it… and what other uses we can find for it."

Rebscura came to the Riolu's mind instantly, and his body writhed in fear and anger. "You can't do it!"

"Oh but we must. That's what we must do, in the name of progress, for humankind to reach new heights, I must research the dark matter, I must unveil all its secrets, turn it into a clean and powerful source of energy, a weapon of mass destruction, the ultimate defense… The properties of this element are unknown to all of us… Except for you." He pointed at him. "You hold the answers to all my questions… and I want- No, I **need** them."

The jackal bit his lip, shaking his head. "No."

His answer was short and anticlimactic after that long speech, and a long silence hung over their heads, only broken by the sound of Gherard clicking his tongue. "That's ok. I wasn't expecting this to be easy… after all, you're the individual that almost broke out… I thought you'd have been more desperate for freedom and reuniting with your loved one…" Eric frowned, as he knew where he was trying to do, fighting the temptation to succumb: he wanted to go back to Elly, more than anything else in the whole wide world. But he wouldn't fall so easily.

"Oh well… this won't be the only time we'll be talking together, E5. I'm a patient man, but I'm also determined. I will get what I want: one way or another." He stood up and left the room behind Eric. A few minutes later guards came in, carrying sticks and police clubs. Gherard's words echoed in his head as he tried to fight back against the mob.

* * *

"Are you sure these are the correct readings from the nanomachines test on that fox?" Administrator John, the head of the lab, said as he inspected the readings that had been reported to him from the last subject for nanomachines testing.

"Yes sir. The devices seem to have a little malfunction on the shutdown protocol that shocks the host-" Another scientist, a particularly good looking woman, with short, fiery hair and brown eyes started to inform but was stopped by her boss.

"I don't care about that. I trust the engineers will fix that problem. I speak about this." He pointed at the readings and the different levels of strength on the graphic. "I want you to explain me this!" He pointed out. "What is this in between the normal strength of that animal and the actual move Strength!" He screamed.

The woman jumped back, slightly frightened, yet she examined her copy of the readings. "Seems like the Zoro-ejem. I mean Test Subject ZD-37915 possesses the same capabilities of Test Subjects from the LF and RF identifications, and that it empowered its muscles with this ability." She informed.

"So you telling me that a beast of a different family from the usual **is able** to use this… Aura power shit?" He asked, she only nodded in response. The man stood thinking for a bit, the possibilities this held and the answers it also brought. On another side it could have been just simple will to survive. "Have we developed a nonlethal composition of 'Project Automaton'?" He asked, the woman's eyes went wide with this question.

"Y-yes, Administrator. It had been tested already and though its effects last less than previous compositions, with the correct dose it will last for hours and won't kill the test subjects."

"Perfect. I want to see ZD-37915 on the pit and fighting. Administer a dose to it and throw it into battle. I want to see if these readings are not mere coincidence. Dismissed." John ordered. The woman simply nodded and turned around, leaving the room. John then started to think about the other headache he had in his facility, what for him was RF-e5e5e5. He wanted to get rid of that animal. It's been enough of a headache already, blowing up part of the Pokémon powers research and holding area for the failures of those experiments. He had wanted to execute that beast before it brought any more troubles, and to show the other beasts that everyone gets their punishment, but Gherard had managed to get his way across and got the thing alive.

The situation infuriated him, if he could only find a way to get rid of that one and break the spirits of the other beasts in his facility so things could go back to normal and fewer incidents with rebellious animals would raise. It didn't help that the search party assigned to recapture the escaped test subject had returned empty handed and that there was no report from the aerial squad. ' _All because of that kid and his idea of a perfect energy source and weapon._ ' He thought. ' _The Big Boss is starting to spoil the brat too much. It's time to put him in his place and show him that He will not agree with everything he does._ ' As he was talking to himself within his mind he devised a plan to get rid of the roots of the problem. He'll spread the rumour the escaped test subject was found dead and that's why the search party came back empty handed, then he'll get rid of the other root of this rebellion. Maybe even put on a show with it and have one of the soldiers kill it in front of everyone.

* * *

Back at the household. Everything seemed to be calmer now, with Elly back some were devising a plan to go rescue the others, while others were worried for her even after Zed had said that she'll be good after some resting after taking care of the infection. That had been the only moment Dust had calmed down, also the only moment tiredness caught up to him, The shiny Riolu almost passing out on the spot, but holding on enough to go to his room and flop on his own couch, Emily staying with him all the time. However, not everything was plotting or visiting the sky blue eyed Eevee. For instance, Clara and Daniel had called Hadrim and Luca to talk. Once the four were alone it was clear the silence was tense. Until Daniel spoke up. "So the situation goes as this. Six of us were kidnaped. We insisted on calling the authorities but you asked us to not do it without giving us any explanation. We trust you so we didn't do it. After that, other two fly off in what it now is clear was some kind of rescue mission, at least one of them was shown on the news fighting against a pretty dangerous Pokémon, and they come back with one of the kidnaped with an infected wound on a leg." He summarized, both Pokémon lowering their ears and faces in shame, knowing now why they had wanted to talk in private. "We love and trust you all, but it seems like you do not trust us." The man said.

"You know we will listen to you. Have we ever given a reason to make you think we don't?" Clara asked now. "Please. Tell us what's happening. Ever since that night you went out and got trouble's you've seemed awfully wary. All of you, and had refused to tell us anything."

Both Pokémon looked at each other for a moment, not knowing what to say. The humans wanted an explanation and they were in all their right to demand one, but half the story was not in their power to tell. "I wish we could explain everything, Clara." Luca started, looking down not being able to look at the woman in the eyes. "But we just… can't." She said.

"Bullshit, Luca!" Dani butt in, making them all look at him. "Don't give us that now, every time we've had troubles we've come to a solution together, like the family we are! Yet these past months you've been avoiding this topic in front of us. What makes you not trust us with what's happening to you, guys?" He said. The anger that was at the beginning of his protest slowly transformed into clear worry for them. "We are all a family damnit! So why you keep whatever it is that has you alls cared from us?" He asked.

This time, Hadrim sighed. The Espeon was thinking on what to do, if explain everything to them, about the Legendaries, about the thing that was behind Team Star. Dani was right, they were a family and what's a family if they can't trust one another? The Espeon just didn't know what to do or say for once. He could only see one way now, spill the beans about everything that was on their right to say, meaning the problem with the Legendary Pokémon. It might be enough to get them to understand why they didn't want to attract much attention over themselves. If the humans called the police, the media would find a way to get the story out for **everyone** to know. He had to decide, and quick before Dani and Clara decided to take it into their own hands.

* * *

Dark was suddenly awoken. The Zoroark standing before being held by a Machamp so he wouldn't move. And before he could say anything a syringe was stabbed on his neck. The Zoroark let out a growl of pain but it was ignored. Once the orange liquid was poured into him the human that used it took the item out and the Machamp forced Dark to move.

He was taken to a big room with an artificial environment, tossed inside and locked in. He felt pain from within himself. His body ached for a moment before he felt his blood boiling with an anger he didn't know where was it coming from. The confusion and fear only empowered that rage to the point that he let out a howl. After a moment, another Pokémon was shoved into the same room, it was a Kabutops. Both of them were on different ends of the room. Dark was looking around as he moved, looking for somewhere to hide, his mind was a mess of confusion, fear and rage. he wanted to hit something, whatever to vent out that rage boiling within.

It wasn't long before the two Pokémon found each other. At that moment Dark was so mad he couldn't hold back a growl to the other, territorial instincts kicking over and fueling that rage. He wasn't the only one, tho, the Kabutops also growled at him and even attacked him, charging forwards with an Aqua jet and getting its blade arms shine. Dark growled louder and shoot a Shadow ball to the incoming enemy, who simply dodged. and kept rushing forwards, stopping when he was on top of the Zoroark and slashing, yet the moment its blade cut the body of the Dark type, this shattered like crystal and vanished. Leaving the ground and water type confused enough time to get hit by a particularly nasty shadow claw from the Zoroark, the which scratched through the exoskeleton and opened three gushes on the fossil pokemon's face. With a roar, it attacked again, rushing again at the Zoroark but this time it summoned a sphere of water which surrounded him and then let loose a strong wave of water. that flooded the area for a moment, hitting the Zoroark full force but Dark didn't budge from his position, enduring the strength of the water, the which only made him slid backwards on the now muddy ground.

After the Surf attack the Kabutops went for another Slash, yet the Zoroark blocked it summoning an aura bone to parry the attack, then followed by hitting the other with all his strength, and a Shadow ball that exploded and sent the pokemon flying back. Dark dismissed his Bone rush and ran at it, and both clashed in an exchange of attacks. The Zoroark used his shadow claw to attack or block. The Zoroark got hit various times, getting cuts here and there, yet he also delivered more to the Kabutops. After a little while, they separated and the ground and water type attacked again with an Aqua jet and its blade glowed as another slash came. Dark used his illusion again, this time he disappeared from his place. Generating illusions all over the place. Trapping his enemy in a mental game, attacking his mind and senses instead of his body this time.

It was hard with the rage rushing through his veins to concentrate on keeping the illusion. Yet he kept it up, faking sounds, guiding his rival around as he wanted while he kept hiding, putting illusions of himself against his foe, making it hard for it to defeat them, yet allowing it to. He wanted to tire it out. And managed to, making it fight against mirages of himself. Once he dimmed the other tired enough, he revealed himself and went to attack, behaving like his illusions, he fooled the Kabutops into going past him and smirked. After that he sent a fake to attack him by surprise, the Kabutops fought the fake until he stabbed it through the chest and brought it down, then the illusion, surprising his enemy, and he attacked. He stabbed his paw through the other's body, the claws going all the way through the Kabutops and then he drew back, his enemy turned and looked at him, the rage was gone and only fear was visible now, yet Dark charged an aura sphere, his purple aura tainted with streaks of orange, his eyes flowing with the same anomalous color. The Zoroark then slammed the sphere into the other's chest and threw it away from him, along with the Pokémon and after a few moments it exploded.

Even as the fight was done, he was growling, looking around. The drug still flowing through his veins, keeping him angry and on edge. On another side, John had taken what he wanted, aside from more information on how some others abilities worked. Since they didn't know much on how the projection of illusions worked. Thanks to the readings the nanomachines in his body had lent them since he activated them on this fight, what the ability did was project the user's imagination upon reality. And on the other hand he got the answer, this beast had the ability to use that power called Aura.

* * *

Eric was put in his spot back in front of Gherard, tired, hungry and beaten up. The man had a laptop in front of him today, and was watching the feed that had been observing the Riolu all hours of the day during the entire time he'd been there. "Now… look at this. You're actually avoiding all the food and drink… that's interesting. Are you not hungry, E5?" He shut the laptop and stood back up. "I would have brought you food again, but… how many times have we done this over the past two days? Seven? Eight? With all this excitement I've lost count."

He hadn't. Exactly seven times the Riolu had counted: he'd been put through horrible tests, trying to break his will, and then returned to Gherard for more interrogations. Over and over. They talked about different things each time: humanity's true sin, the thirst for knowledge, the ways they had shaped the world… he went on and on about all this, and Eric could say he knew Gherard well with all honesty… and he was about to turn all that knowledge on him.

"Why do you want… The Dark Matter?" Was the only thing Eric said, infinitely confusing the human.

"E5… I thought we discussed this already… I want to discover its applications! Its uses! This whole facility we're in right now, and all the experiments that are being conducted on it are being fueled by the energy produced by the vat of dark matter you almost destroyed! And we're just using a small amount of the energy that is emitted when we throw anything into it! Anything from the chair you're sitting on to your friends, anything will produce massive amounts of energy depending on its size, and I want to know to harvest all that energy, and the applications it can have! I've offered you freedom, money, fame… and you still refuse it all! Why?!" He slammed his fist on the table, and the Riolu had to fight back a smile for the moment.

"No… I meant your personal reasons." The human retracted his fist from the table and sat down, looking at him. "You're desperate to find this information and make a name for yourself… why?" The blond man didn't answer, verbally, only sighing and tightening the grip his hands had on each other. "You're being pressured… but not by your superiors, no… That's not the case, otherwise I wouldn't be here. I think it's something else… A family member, perhaps?" Gherard got up and turned away, pacing around as Eric turned their first encounter on him.

"A sister that you're jealous of maybe? You're both in this together, and you're frustrated she's higher above you, with her always taunting and pressuring you, trying to keep you under her heel… and this dark matter business is your only way up. The only way you'll ever get that recognition you so desperately crave… you don't give a damn about anything else… you just want to be better than whoever's been pressuring you, you scu-" He was silenced by a slap across the face… and another. And another. One after the other, a steady rhythm as the blows rained down on his cheeks while Eric showed him a wicked smile, Gherard's usually calm demeanor being replaced by this erratic and emotionally charged man. When he was satisfied, there was a sliver of blood snaking its way out of the corner of Eric's muzzle and down his chin. With the amount of hits he'd just received, it was a miracle his teeth weren't broken, as Gherard's hand was blood red, and probably with a couple bones out of their joints.

"You… little shit." He slammed the chair he had been sitting on out of the way, approaching the Riolu. "That's the last time you cross me… I've run out of patience… and I promised I'd get my hands on what you have… one way or the other." His words were filled with rage and venomous hatred, and the Riolu only answered by spitting blood in his face.

Gherard, however, seemed to have a revelation with that blood spit… and his smile widened. "You know… I'd lie if I said I didn't enjoy these conversations… even if my colleagues call me insane. Still, there's something… odd, about you. Your mannerisms, your beliefs, your thoughts, the way you speak and move… It's distinctively human, and yet when we looked into your background, you didn't have a trainer. In fact, you seemed to pop into existence with those friends of yours… Which begs the question, where'd you come from? And… why are you so different from all the other pokémon here?" He edged closer to the Riolu, the pokémon's grin fading while his own grew. "Could it be that… you're not like them to begin with? That you are different to pokémon and humans, almost as if… you came from somewhere else… really, **really** far away…" A drop of sweat trickled down the Riolu's forehead, which told the scientist all he wanted to know.

"Oh I can't wait to open you up."

* * *

Serge woke up with a gasp, his eyes glancing around the room and getting used to the poor lighting. He was in a mostly dark room, the only discernible source of light being a candlestick propped up on a desk, besides the which was Jake, sitting on a chair with his legs crossed and seemingly reading a book, but he could see how his eyes fluttered every so often, fighting back sleep. When he noticed he was wide awake, however, he shut the book and snapped to his feet, walking over to the bed. The Pidgeot got ahead of him, sitting up and putting his right wing up. "I'm fine, I'm fine… the migraine's gone for now, so I'll live. I really overdid it back there, flying so mu-" He was cut off when Jake grabbed his wing and pushed the feathers out of the way, making the Pidgeot panic. "Hey hey, what the f-"

The Sneasel searched in that soft mess, and eventually found what he'd been looking for: underneath his coat of feathers, he could see white lines trailing around, making a pattern underneath. "I knew it. When I saw you using the wind like that, and your wing glowing like that… I always suspected there was something up with you, but now I know I was right to not trust you: you can use magic."

Serge pulled back from the ice type, caressing his wing and getting the feathers back in their rightful spot, where they covered his mark. "And?"

"And?! This changes everything, Serge! You've been a magic user for a long time, and not once did you come out to tell us?! Why?!" He bombarded the bird with questions, the latter feeling his headache coming back to haunt him already, placing a wing on the Sneasel's head.

"Ok ok… alright, first of all, just because I know magic doesn't mean I'm not the Pidgeot you all know and love. I just, y'know, kept it as a little secret from y'all. And before you ask, I did have my reasons… Some of which I don't want to explain quite yet." Halfway through his speech the ice type huffed and walked away, reaching the door and grabbing the knob.

"It's not a matter of want or not want anymore, Serge!" He twisted it and flung the door open, revealing that most of the pokémon in the house were behind it, listening in. They all recoiled when the Sneasel uncovered them, telling the flying type that this hadn't been planned. Lucy jumped up when the door hit the wall. "We all know, you don't have any more time, you need to tell us what that mark means, and why you have it!"

Dust was also there, yet he wasn't expecting this kind of conversation to go on. He only wanted to know how the Pidgeot was doing after their little trip at high speeds, but this was none of his business. ' _I should better go._ ' He thought, turning and starting to walk away.

"Alright well, I… I'm just… not prepared to tell that story yet, ok?" Nobody answered for a long time, which made the Pidgeot sigh and stand up. "Look, I've had this since I was… 18 years old. Right around that time something… something really bad happened. I don't want to go into details because it was that what pushed me to… making deals with shady people, become a drunkard, playboy, and the shit that you've all heard around me… I won't lie when I say that I did enjoy it, and would still enjoy it if I did it today, hell you all know, I take the first chance I get to go out on the town. But… I joined Team Star, and I was given a legitimate chance, even after some of this garbage came to light… So I owe you guys, and I owe Eric and Elly."

"That still doesn't explain why you'd keep something so crucial hidden from us Serge. If you're willing to lie about this, what else are you hiding?"

"You don't want to know. I'll take the blame if anyone ever drops by to say they want me to pay a debt… but what 'm talking about here, what happened with this?" He rose a wing. "I don't want to tell either you, or Eric, Elly or anyone else in the fucking whole wide world. I want what happened to stay in the past, now and forever, and move on."

"And what if it does come back, against your better judgement?" Jake inquired, his tone having gotten more stern.

"Then I'll leave the team if you all want me to." His words were serious. Whatever the Pidgeot was hiding was incredibly big, and Jake was the only one in that room who didn't look away or at the ground, unable to look at the Pidgeot for various reasons. The Sneasel knew better than to press the interrogation, and simply picked up his book.

"Very well… let us hope that it never comes down to that, Serge."

"Thank you. I mean it." He rose his head and looked at them, his thoughts immediately drifting to the reason he'd been asleep like this. "How's Elly doing? Is she up already?"

"She's…" Lucy opened her mouth to explain the situation, but was interrupted by the Eevee herself walking into the room, dragging a paw across the floor as she butted her way past them without saying a word. Sour wouldn't be enough an adjective to describe her face, twisted in an unhappy frown even as she looked at her saviour.

"Serge, I need you to fly me back there." Her statement was expected, and everyone rolled their eyes or sighed in defeat, especially Jake who dropped his book on the floor and flapped his arms.

"Wait, what?! First of all, I don't think you should be up, and second of all, let me get some rest, damn it! I need at least one day before attempting something like that…"

"You've been asleep for two days Serge!"

" **What?!** " The bird looked at everyone else in the room, and answered with nods and shrugs.

"From what Dust told us, and from what we saw on the screens… by the way, your little stunt was televised across the entire region, and possibly the whole world, so well done… Anyways, from what we know, you overexerted yourself, and I thought the most logical approach was for you to sleep for as long as you needed… even if you went borderline comatose for the first few hours." Jake's lengthy explanation provided some answers, but made many more questions pop up in the bird's brain.

He was cut off by Elly again, however. "That's exactly my point! He's been asleep for two days, and the others are still over there and suffering through that torture! Eric is hanging on to life by a thread, but I don't know **anything** about the others! They might very well be dead as we're just wasting our time here discussing things we should be discussing when they're safe!" She faced the Pidgeot. "Don't think you're getting off without explaining those powers a bit more and how they work Serge, but now you need to take us to the island now and help us rescue everyone else, because we've already wasted enough time as i-"

Jake stomped up to her and delivered a slap across her face, twisting her face from the blow, which left everyone in the room speechless and the Eevee flabbergasted. Even Jake recoiled and shook his hand, as he had put a bit more force than he intended behind it. Still, it was effective, and the normal type was quiet. "From what Serge and Dust told us, it was a stroke of pure luck that you managed to get out far enough so that they could extract you from the island Elly. Attacking now, without knowing the situation or any sort of back up would be reckless and get some of us kidnapped or killed."

"We no longer have the surprise factor on our side: they know you got out, and they'll be expecting your return to finish what you started. They'll be waiting for pokémon like us, skilled with powerful abilities… and magic. And we will be defeated, because there are too many of them, and with their weaponry they'd decimate us. On top of that, they could use the others as meatshields, and force us to surrender lest they're executed in front of us. We have become the centre of their attention, and they know what to expect from us."

"So what do you suggest we do then?! Sit around with our arms crossed until something happens?! Eric is t-"

" **We know Eric is there Elly, listen to me!** " For the first time since they'd all met Jake, the Sneasel shouted to the top of his lungs and at the border of just downright losing it: he was desperate, with bloodshot eyes and bags underneath them, and grabbing the Eevee's shoulders and shaking them, his fingers gripping at her arms. "When Serge and Dust left… we feared the worst. We feared that we had lost them…" He shot a pained glance at Serge, which told the Pidgeot just how much he'd fucked up by doing something like that. "And I have no intentions of letting that happen again. Mark my words, Elly, that we will all go there soon, and we will be prepared for **anything.** "

Elly was about to cry, but somehow managed to hold back a pained wail, sniffing and stuttering a follow-up question. "And what is it that you want to do?"

Jake let go of her and walked towards the window, looking out at the cloudy sky. "Our options are severely limited… but while thinking about what we could do I had an epiphany. I thought not about what we could do, but rather what **others** could do for **us**." Everyone stared at the Sneasel with hopeful eyes, and opened their ears to listen to his plan.

"Those monsters made two fatal mistakes: they kidnapped Eric, our fearless leader and friend… but they also kidnapped Dark and Natalie, precious friends of ours… and the targets of a massive conspiration involving legendary pokémon from this world. And one of the sides just so happens to despise humans." Serge, Elly and Zed gasped in unison, with Nox and Lucy following their example soon after. They all knew where this was going.

"But… but that's gonna be a fucking massacre!" Serge shouted, shocked that this was even being considered as an option.

"What else can we do? Ourselves alone will not be capable of breaking through their defences, especially when they're expecting us… but what if we used someone else as a distraction, a decoy of sorts."

"So you want to use Dailos' faction to…"

Dust had been checking on Ichiro, since he decided to wait til Team Star ended their discussion so he could go ask about Serge. Yet when Jake shouted like that it had picked his interest. The human boy was playing videogames with a headset so he was very much deaf. The shiny Riolu went out of the room and as the conversation had been going on he approached, and he asked, interrupting the question that was being asked with his own. "If that's your plan tell us, Jake. What is it that would make Dailos' followers go there and do the dirty job themselves, when those humans can very well do it for them?" He asked.

"Simple: There's another faction involved in this, one that would very much like for Dark and Natalie to stay alive… thus, when they learn that they've been kidnapped, they will send someone to rescue them. Dailos knows this fact, and will have no other choice but sending his own legendaries. And once those three sides meet… that, will be when we strike, go into the laboratory, and get everyone to safety while they are all fighting outside." He concluded his explanation with a wicked smile.

"I hope you have planned an escape route that doesn't go through the battlefield." He said and then looked at Elly and her paw, biting his lip, knowing her position, he's been one of those that had tried to convince her to let the matter to them, but nothing worked.

"From what Elly said, her escape route led to an area behind the mansion itself, far away from where the battle will most likely take place. If everything else fails then…" He looked at Nox, who smile grew so wide it hurt his face. "We'll make our own."

"Hell yeah! This plan's gonna be the shit!" The fire type was ecstatic.

"This is fucking insane… but count me in. I won't let those bastards get away with this." Lucy said, putting up her paw.

"If there's really no other choice then… we'll have to do it."

"There's still no way to make you stay, right Elly?" Dust asked her, folding his arms. "If we want to get there fast some of us will have to stay back and wait. And I also **will not** stay sitting on my ass wondering if this had gone all according to plan." He said. As much as he had wanted Elly to stay it was because of her wounded leg, he himself was just as adamant on going back for his family and friend.

"I'm in… but I have a question: how the fuck are we going to get in contact with those legendaries without… you know… getting killed ourselves?" Serge asked, keeping his wing hovering just above the others'.

"Well… I do remember you telling us that you knew where Leopold and Kaylani live… I'm sure they know other legendaries that can… spread the message both ways." Serge smiled at the Sneasel. This was the reason why he loved working with the ice type so much.

* * *

"...In other news, the case of the attack on the ship around The Inaccesible island, in the Narel Region, hasn't been solved. The unconscious bodies of a Skarmory and the Hydreigon were found washed up on the shores of the nearby islands the day after, and neither pokémon have said anything about the attacks. They are now in police custody, but the Pidgeot has yet to be found." The screen shifted to the shot a human had taken of Serge. Looking away and at the Hydreigon, and with that glowing wing… There was just no mistaking that pearl tied tightly around his right talon.

The cloaked figure smiled and turned around, melting into the human mob around it.

The trail was reignited.

 **PS: Hey, Eric here, just a small FYI: We aren't doing ANs so as to not take you guys outside of the inmersion of these chapters, sorry about this. Your reviews will be answered through PM. Thank you for understanding.**

Special thanks to my fantastic friend WesternFail for helping me by being a Beta for this chapter. You are doing god's work by fixing whatever I miss.


	22. Chapter 21 - Humanity's Fall

**Chapter 21**

 **Humanity's Fall**

The scent of the sea was never that much clear to her. The Vulpix girl had grown accustomed to her enhanced senses in all the time she had been with these creatures. First the one that took her in and gave her a new outfit to wear, consisting of white short trousers, a red t-shirt and deep purple hoodie, the one with the black mist covering his body and creepy sounding voice. He had been scary to be around, yet he had treated her well, better than anyone; the second one was also nice, still scary, but mostly because of his temper, he got angry a lot and around him it was so hot that it was suffocating, but he taught her about her new abilities and how to use and control them; and the last one that was taking care of her at the moment. This one was much more to be around and in personality than the other two, and she felt safe with him around. They had arrived not long ago at a beach, where he let her on the sand before getting out of the water himself. The one that taught her had called this one Tide when he left her with him. These Avatars as they called themselves in general were quite different from one another and not only in appearance, even if they claimed to be part of the same being.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Tide asked as he covered his scaled body with a long cloak that reached the floor, hiding his whole body, the hood hiding his draconic head.

She didn't look at him, instead at her hands, covered in brown fur and with pads, before balling them into fists. Her tails shifted in anger behind her, he caught into this. "Yes. I'm sure. I'll get inside and help the others and the Pokémon trapped there." She said and he nodded at her determination.

"Very well. I shall refrain for a while then. These humans had gone too far, it's time they are taught a lesson." He said. "The fact that they have created a new kind to inhabit this world, with enough numbers for them to prosper, doesn't give them any right over them." He said as he started walking. His hammer attached to his back. The girl looked at him and followed. She didn't cover herself, instead she showed off her new form. The three Avatars she had been with had inspired in her a pride for what she was now. Unwillingly as it had been, she was one of the first of a new race. A race that had their right to live and prosper in freedom, not enslaved as Team Arena has had them all this time.

They took some hours to get close to the building. As they arrived they saw a van carrying some cages and some other humans with Pokemon traits tied or cuffed as well. Tide refused to go in, while she had to infiltrate the place, and for that she needed to push everything aside. Using the arrival of the new slaves as her ticket to get inside. She got to know the place in a few days, having to endure such a level of humiliation that would have broke anyone, yet she knew they could be free, and they all will be free.

At first she missed being a normal human, going to school and so on. But now that she had become prideful of what she was, her resolve would not be so easily broken as it had been earlier. Her shell was broken and she intended to break the rest of her fellow 'failed experiments' out of their own shell. Show them they could be free and strong, that they could have a normal life again. And she'll die before being broken again by this bastards. Once she knew the place enough she knew it was time

It was time to wake up the others. It was time to get freedom for the Pokemorph Kind.

It was time that Team Arena remembered that they are not gods, but fragile mortals. "The Serpent of the Ocean will rise again. And the Tide shall Cleanse the Greed that roots on the coast." Said the water Avatar as he walked into the sea once more, his own body becoming seawater and dissolving into the vast oceans.

* * *

The room was pitch dark, not a single source of light in sight, and yet he could hear the whining and moaning coming from the dank depths he'd been confined to. Groans and whimpers of suffering and desperation were all he could recognize, and yet he had to stay strong, for the worst was most likely yet to come, if the human voices over the speakers outside were anything to go by. The room he was locked in shifted suddenly, and started moving up, pulled by wires as the elevator hummed, ascending as light crept into his jail cell, revealing the battered and tired shape of a Riolu.

Eric opened his eyes and looked out through the crack in the door, memories flooding back from his very first years. When he had been looking for Elly, he'd been shoved into a similar situation. But the stakes were higher than ever now, what with hundreds of innocent pokémon being thrust into that wretched place. "Up next, our star show, the one and only: **Bloooooooodbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaath!** " The doors opened and the light rushed in like a waterfall, flooding his eyes and blinding him momentarily as he stepped out, blinking repeatedly as his irises adapted to the harsh headlights bathing the entire stadium.

All around, he could see pokémon that were in his same situation. Some were scared, some were confused, most were bloodthirsty animals only looking out for their own survival, turned into monsters by the circumstances, even if underneath they were any of the former. "Ladies and gentlemen, the usual rules apply: place your bets on the pokémon in question, and if they get the most kills, you win! Your bets have been placed, and now it's time for the fun to begin!" Eric glanced up to stare at those filthy humans: women and men, all together, looking down at the arena where the pokémon congregated, a pool of bloody chunks and crimson puddles laid out in front of them, utterly disgusted: if the pokémon there didn't die from the fights, they'd die because of whatever illnesses they caught.

"And 3." Everyone tensed up and got ready, and the Riolu's eyes blitzed around to find a familiar face. And he found them.

"2." To the far right, he spotted Phal, psyching himself up for the fight ahead, his usual smile twisted into a sad frown, their eyes meeting and his eyes lighting up immediately. Eric answered with a confident smile.

"1!" The last seconds seemed to last forever, everyone at the ready, crouching down, ready to lunge…

" **GO!** "

( **Play for Keeps - Anarchy Reigns** )

Music blared out of the speakers as the fight begun, and everyone dashed towards the center. Soon enough, it devolved into a bloodbath, punches, kicks, claws and blades flying left and right as pokémon were hurled around and crushed against the ground, the humans cheering and roaring as they got exactly what they had come for: bloodshed. Eric opted to avoid the initial fight and headed straight for Phal, who stuck his foot right into a Linoone's maw, breaking all its fangs with a brutal kick before he shot back and did a cartwheel, flinging his body at the wall and knocking it out, adding to the growing pile of unconscious pokémon behind him. As he stood up he jumped and kicked off of a Bonsly and against a Lopunny's head, falling and turning around in the air as he landed on his hands and spun like a top with his legs spread, kicking both of his opponents away. The Bonsly was hurled towards Eric, who twisted around and grabbed it by the twigs, then returned it back to the Lopunny and joined the unconscious pokémon, blitzing right by Phal's face.

The teal Riolu whistled as Eric gave his back to him, doing the same and watching out for new challengers. "That's some nice aim! Try not to aim so close though, you almost knocked my block off!"

"Your… what?!"

"My head! Dude, slang, get with the program!" His short laughter was interrupted by a howl. "Heads up!" He jumped up and buried his heel into a Pansage's head, knocking him to Eric, who followed up with an uppercut and launched him up, and Phal finished with divekick, sending him to the pile.

"Good idea putting all of them in a corner! If anyone wants to finish them off, they'll have to get through us!" Eric charged his arms with aura as his companion gave him a nervous laughter.

"Yeah! Hahaha, uh… totally! Two steps ahead of ya, y'know?" The central fight was still raging on in the middle of the arena, and Eric thought of an idea to get them focus on them. He launched two aura spheres, the explosions sending most of the small pokémon flying and knocking back the rest. A Charizard and a Rhydon returned right into the fight, fire flying off mixed with broken pebbles and rocks as brimstone rained down, more joining in whilst a mob set their sights on Eric, Phal and their growing pile of unconscious pokémon.

"The more pokémon you kill, the more you'll have to eat once the round's over… Sick bastards, they know that they'll kill for just a few more specks of food if they were starving us in the labs." Vines shot forward as a Torterra tried to make its way to Eric and crush him. Eric dodged left and right, fists in front of him as he dashed and then delivered two punches, from side to side, against the Torterra's face, ending with a crushing blow to the skull, then grabbing his legs and howling as he used him as a makeshift blunt weapon, hitting anyone and anything near him away and adding him to the pile.

Phal dodged under the Torterra as he kicked a Malamar's tentacles away, making space between them until he saw an opening, at which he point, with his arms glued to his body, he ducked and dashed forward, sliding and kicking the water type's legs. They tumbled to the ground, and which point the teal Riolu got back up and delivered another blow to his exposed back, hitting the wall and knocking him out clean. "I'm about to start keeping score dude!"

"Focus!" Was Eric's only reply as he blocked an overhead attack a Medicham with his arms, sliding as he grabbed the ground, tensing up as he slowly turned around and kicked the air with force, releasing an aura charge and blowing him away across the entire arena, making the crowd go wild at the sight of something flying away so fast.

"There's a lot of kills to be made at the right hand corner of the arena! A battle royale is about to go down!" The announcer's voice came on over the music, calling the mob's attention to the unconscious pokémon, and now everyone was heading towards the duo. Eric recharged his aura and tensed up.

"Out of my sight!" He put his paws together as punched the Charizard's chest, knocking the wind out of it and transforming it into a cannonball that completely ruined everyone and everything behind it, a large portion of their new enemies flying off as bodies lay scattered. Nobody paid mind though, considering the scattered unconscious pokémon to be small fry compared to the bigger prize that Eric and Phal were defending. The teal Riolu delivered a heel kick to an Oshawot, breaking right through the water stream it had been using to defend itself, dragging his foot across the ground and sweeping up a Loudred, a Lombre and yet another Bonsly, then with that same momentum laid on the ground and spun as if he was breakdancing, his other heel catching the three of them in that same order and adding them to the mound of pokémon.

"Eric!" He called his name as he saw a Machamp making a dash for the group, accompanied by a Sceptile and Scyther. With his feet at the ready, Eric jumped on Phal, landing on his feet as he launched the blue Riolu higher up, his right fist glowing as he came down on the trio, crushing the Machamp with it and blasting the other two with the aura blast, clearing the area. The crowd went nuts momentarily until they realized that nobody was dying, indignated humans roaring in anger as they threw papers into the arena, headed at the Riolu. He just smiled and spread his arms, taunting them.

A Poochyena lunged at him from behind, but a vine coiled itself around his back paw and he was flung away against the ground, then back up into the air. "It's yours, teal boy!" A voice shouted, and Phal didn't miss a beat, jumping up and kicking the dark type to the ground. When he turned to face the source of the voice he saw another vine flying by his head and latch itself around a Monferno's neck, stunning it momentarily as he grabbed the vines and burned them to a crisp. However, it was too late at that point, as Eric came up from behind, wrapped his hands around his chest and pulled him back, repeating the same move he had once seen the human Eric do, smashing his head into the ground and making him black out.

When they finally stared at their newfound ally, they found a beaten up Treecko walking up slowly, smirking. "Couldn't help but see you two piling up pokémon… I've got a feeling you don't intend on killing them at all. Need a hand with that?"

"I dunno… How do we know you won't take advantage and try to kill them while we aren't looking?" Phal inquired and stared right at her eyes, inches away from her. She didn't answer for the longest time, but she didn't back off either, not a tinge of fear in her eyes, which made the Riolu smirk. "I like it when they don't back off… Welcome aboard, sister!"

"If you two are done, I need a bit of help here!" Eric called for help as he struggled against a Mienshao, the two of them pushing against the other, none winning. Phal looked at the Treecko.

"Name's Axia, by the way." She used her vines and tied them around the Mienshao's legs, pulling them closer to Phal, who followed up with a visceral roundhouse kick to the head, hitting it again as it came back around as the Treecko swung it to the pile.

"Phal! And that buzz kill over there is Eric!"

"What the f-" The aforementioned Riolu didn't have time to follow up as a loud noise echoed from the speakers.

" **ONE MINUTE REMAINS.** " The trio looked at each other and nodded, the remaining pokémon in the arena now focusing on them as the beat of the song sped up, the lyrics echoing in their heads. The last standing pokémon were an Ursaring and a Noivern, as the rest were unconscious or avoiding further confrontation because of their wounds or fear. The first to fall was the Ursaring, facing off against Eric individually as the Riolu danced around his swipes, ducking and dodging to the sides before countering with a strong blow to his stomach, bending him down, following up with two roundhouse kicks and jumping up, kicking him again on his way up and one last time as he reached the apex of his jump, releasing the aura charge in his feet with that last kick.

As the normal type crashed to the ground Axia's vines wrapped themselves around the Noivern's neck, trying to pull it down to the ground, but Phal took the chance to jump on the vines and run up them as if they were a tight rope, kicking off the Noivern's head and coming down with an axe kick, hitting its back directly and crashing it against the ground with a high pitched screech, which he silenced with another kick to the head of his downed foe, its head hitting the ground with dry thump. The siren that signaled the end of the fight sounded off in unison with shouts of excitement, anger and disgust from the humans above, the trio looking at the pile of pokémon and cheering as they succeeded in saving most of their lives.

( **Stop the music** )

" **Aaaand that's the end of that round! The winner is…** " They started giving out winners and counting the kills of each of the individual pokémon. Slowly, the loud sounds died down as the doors through the which they'd come out opened up, guards with guns and pokémon clad in armor came to the field, picking up the bodies and unconscious pokémon alike and forcing the survivors back into their cages, after the which they were taken downstairs in those same elevators. Darkness once again took over Eric's senses, though he didn't permit himself the luxury of relaxing quite yet, as his cage was carried back to its normal spot amongst the ill and battered pokémon.

The smell of disease was predominant, thanks to the ugly wounds that most suffered on a daily basis. looking around and spotting some familiar faces, such as Phal and Axia, being put on the ground with no semblance of care, before they grabbed other cages and carried them up to the arena for yet another round. They could hear the loud music from the speakers starting up again, another song playing, though it was muffled by the meters of thick concrete and dirt that separated their cells from the pit. Whilst he descended, however, a human was looking at the barbaric spectacle in utter disgust.

" _Seen all you need to see? I want to get out of this hell's pit._ " Shul said. The Lucario was dressed with Zax's black hoodie, the hood up and a kerchief over his muzzle to cover his face; he was also wearing some beige accordion pants to cover his legs and tail. By his side, Zax was looking into the Arena, the fight that he had seen had been interesting to say the least. Seemed like some Pokémon still wanted to live and keep the others alive.

"Come on, now. Calling this place that is barely an insult." The human chuckled slightly as he whispered. "But you are right. I've seen enough. Both on the Pokémon forced to fight… and those kids." He said as he saw a man grabbing a girl with Shinx traits, like the ears, fur on arms and legs, this last being digitigrade paws, and tail, paying one of Team Arena's grunts and taking her away from the arena section. He bit his lower lip as he looked, they had to bring this place down and involving the police would only make this fuckers move elsewhere. "We have to take all them out of here, then we can blow this place up." The white haired man said.

" _Is that so now? What happened with 'I don't care for casualties.'?_ "

"You can say old me is mixing with the bomberman me." And with a laugh, the both of them headed off to find a way out of that place. Zax needed to come up with a plan to take down this Colliseum of Blood with only six Pokémon, and take out every Pokémon trapped there as well as those poor kids whose lives had been destroyed.

" _I just have one question._ " Shull asked once more. " _This kids… It will be impossible for them to form a new, normal life, let alone recover their previous lives if there's anything remaining of it. Then, why wouldn't they want to die before being freed from here?_ "

Zax smiled. "I got words from a very hot headed fella. He said that these kids deserve a second chance at living. And managed to convince me that they could make a lasting community on their own." Was all the human said. The Lucario stood looking at him for a moment before nodding and walking with him out of that place, following the other uninterested clients that were walking out already.

Now that all humans were gone, Eric sighed and dropped to the ground, leaning against his bars and breathing deeply. "It's been a long time since I was put into a situation like this…"

"Dude… have I ever told you that you sound like an old war veteran?" Phal joked from his cell, invisible to Eric from his perspective, making the Riolu laugh.

"Someone pointed it out to me before, yes! That being said, I am saying the truth."

"Didn't call you a liar either way bro. Whatevs, good shit out there! Same goes for you, Axia!"

"I was just about to comment on that, you two surprised me with how well you can fight… you specially Phal, with those thin arms of yours." The Treecko responded from the other direction, her cell visible to Eric, spotting her sitting with her legs crossed and looking at him. He waved, and she returned the salute.

"Hey, back off sister! These arms used to be pure, concentrated steel! Could level a skyscraper with these bad boys! But Arceus figured out I'd steal all the legendaries from him, so he cast me down from the heavens and put me in this mortal realm with regular strength, and then these assholes experimented on me… and now I'm here!" Eric and Axia had begun laughing halfway through that speech, though their apparent glee was ticking off many of the pokémon down there, hitting bars and swearing to try and get them to shut up.

"Most everyone here has given up hope on getting out alive, haven't they?" The world traveler pointed out, looking down at the floor.

"Yep… Honestly, I've kinda given up myself too, hence why I'm being like this. Told ya back in the labs."

"So you two came from some labs? I was taken out of the wild and my family and carried here… a week ago now."

"You've been here for a week?! Holy shit, the rose's got some thorns!"

"...excuse me?" Phal laughed with Axia's question, and Eric couldn't help but chuckle as he noticed her flabbergasted face, but she quickly regained her composure.

"At any rate, we've been here for one day, and this fight was insane… we'll see just how long we'll last."

"What happened to you two anyways? They don't send anything from the labs unless they're failed test subjects." She glanced at a nearby cage, and Eric did the same. Inside he spotted a human like creature sobbing in the corner. It had barely any clothes on, and seemed to be female from the sound of her sobs. Its fur was yellow like a Jolteon's, but her shape was definitely a human's.

"Bastards… But anyways, yes, we got here a day ago… We blew up a section of the lab and instead of killing us they sent us here." Eric's response made a lot of the pokémon and hybrids in the cell area stand up and glare at him. Some in disbelief, others in rage, and a smaller portion feeling their spirits being renewed with hope.

"Yeah, he's not kidding you. Here's what happened…"

* * *

 **One day earlier...**

Eric was thrown back into his cage, face red and bruised from the beating he had received a few minutes prior from Gherard. Phal quickly raced to him after he noticed the poor state his friend was in, asking him what in the world had happened. His only response were pained groans and low swears, sitting up. "Pissed off the bastard… I think I might have done it this time, said he was gonna open me up. Can't afford to drop my guard now…" It was impossible at that point however, as his eyelids were too heavy. He hadn't properly slept for the entire duration of that torture, having lost the notion of time by that point. It could've been a whole day, a week, or a month, he had no way to know.

"Well… fuck me man, what the fuck we gonna do?! He's gonna open you up like he did with my arms fam! I've seen too many good pokémon being sent away and returning looking like a piece of modern art, don't want that happenin' to you!" There was some desperation in his voice, which comforted Eric, but there was something else to his words that worried him slightly. He didn't delve into it too much, his brain already machinating a plan.

"I'm thinking… trying to break out from this cage straight out would only get me face first into a mob of guards, and Elly's not here to protect me from bullets anymore, so that's not an option." He stared at the food bowl, obviously drugged to make him more likely to take in all of that torture… and had an idea.

About an hour later, Phal was simply sitting against the iron bars of his jail cell as Eric was snoring away and sleeping soundly. Through cameras, Gherard confirmed that the Riolu was knocked out, seeing that the food bowl was semi empty, and ordered a couple of guards to go up there and get him. Phal watched with furious eyes as his friend was picked up like a dead animal and carried away, growling and shouting as he was taken away and into an elevator, taking him down to wherever they were going to kill him. As soon as they were out of view though, he couldn't hold back a smirk, glancing at his own food bowl: there was so much food in it it was falling off the sides.

It didn't take long for the guards to carry Eric to the operation room, a plain white room with a glass pane, lifeless walls and a clean steel metal table with several doctors and trays already prepared. Amongst them was Gherard, wearing surgeon attire and with a mask on, alongside the other doctors. "Careful. We don't want to damage the specimen too soon. Lay him down slowly, and put the cuffs on… prepare the anesthesia as well."

The scientists walked around as the guards stood by the entrance of the room, all of them obeying their superior's orders down to the last syllable, the shackles being prepared and a syringe with a clear liquid being filled. As they looked for the Riolu's veins, however, his eyes snapped open and quickly threw a punch to the right, hitting one of the humans away. The surprise factor gave him the chance to release himself from the shackles they've already locked him in, but by that time the mob was on top of him. "Sedate him! Now! Do it!" The blond human's voice echoed above the rest and Eric swore when he saw the syringe plunging down on his right paw… He had no other choice, and was fed up. His right arm glowed white, building up energy, and as the syringe barely grazed his skin a beam of pure light shot up to the ceiling. The beam caught the arm and the syringe, disintegrating it and making a scientist shake and scream, everyone else immediately releasing him as Gherard ducked and ran away, swearing in german.

The handless scientist fell backwards and stared at the wound: there wasn't any blood, and the wound was completely seared and cicatrized, not a sight of the rest of his hand left on that world. The guards aimed at Eric and threatened to shoot as the Riolu fell to the floor, landing on his side, exhausted from the sudden release of energy. Before they opened fire on him however, Gherard demanded they stopped. They all stared in a mixture of fear and shock as the Riolu struggled up to his knees, staring at Gherard as he rose his right paw again, glowing white… but never got to fire that beam again, falling forward, completely spent.

As all of this happened, the alarm had begun ringing again, the pokémon in their cells revolting and shouting as all activity in the laboratories was suspended. This was the second time this had happened in the entirety of that lab's existence, and they had had two of those events in the span of a few days. Then again, they were clearly dealing with strange circumstances, as Gherard could clearly see in the hole that had been opened up in the ceiling, cutting all the way through the layers and layers of brick and concrete and wooden floor boards of the mansion above, all the way up to the sky, piercing a cloud. He was baffled, now understanding that whatever this Riolu was and meant, was out of this world.

There was the noise all of a sudden, coming from Gherard's earpiece. In the hallways, John was on his way to have some words. "Pick up you damned bastard!" He grumbled as he walked. Whether he did or not that idiotic brat with 'world changing' ideas was going to have a piece of his mind. Fuck whatever the boss said. He will not consent more problems in **his** lab. ' _This place is mine! I don't need an approbation from the Big Boss to do what I want. And I'm sick of this brat's fondness of that dog!_ " He thought as he continued walking at a fast pace with some guards behind him. As the alarms started he asked for the source of this, and he had gotten a footage that showed that damned creature doing whatever it was. ' _Maybe it's about time we try the Power Trespassing on an adult human._ ' He sentenced, an evil smile on his face. ' _Yes. That would be the perfect way to show that brat his place here!_ ' He kept thinking about it as he attempted contacting Gherard again with the internal communication devices.

Gherard sighed and picked up the communicator, answering. "John, this Riolu is much more than we could've ever imagined, we need t-"

"It can have fucking golden bones for all I care!" He interrupted the other. "I'm getting rid of that pest! And then you, mister, are getting what you deserve! Remember I am the one in charge here, and that dog has already caused enough troubles, already, and it's going down **right now**! Now tell me where the hell are you and don't you dare lie or I swear you'll be treated like those animals!"

Gherard considered not responding and ignoring the following conversation…. alas, that would've been worse for himself. "Level 2, laboratory D-02. You cannot kill him, he's the key to uncovering the dark matter's secrets."

John pressed the button on the Elevator and the machine started carrying him up."Sorry to break it up to you, boy, but now one cares about your dreams of glory!" He said. "If you want to drown in that black shit you can try and convince the Big Boss to build a lab for you. But here you are stopping now!" The anger spoke its own threatening language. "And don't you even think you are getting away this easily. Don't move from where you are." And with that, John hung up.

Gherard groaned and smashed his communicator on the ground out of pure rage, staring at the other lab members and the screaming one, whining about the loss of his hand. "Get him to a god damn doctor, this isn't a show! Go!" His tone represented his emotions clear as day, and everyone rushed to get the wounded human out and the Riolu on the steel table again, now knocked out. The temptation to just grab a scalpel and tear his heart out was there, and would as easy as grabbing the knife. He didn't however, knowing that he'd lose his only key.

Once he reached the place, John slammed the door open and got into the room, pistol in hand. The man went in and looked at Gherard and then at the Riolu. "Get this brat to the PT section." He ordered his guards as he approached the table, aiming for the jackal's head, he just needed to pull the trigger and the root of his problems will be gone.

Gherard, however, wasn't having any of that, pulling out his phone and showing the number of their boss on the screen. "Stop right there." He ordered drily, stopping the enraged human on his tracks. "You kill the Riolu, it's you right afterwards. This thing is the key to unlocking the dark matter's secrets, an even greater source of money than your little Frankensteins."

John looked at him, seething with rage, and sighed in exasperation, looking upwards and everything he had been thinking suddenly stopped. "Is that… The fucking sky?" He asked, bewildered. The guards also looked at the ceiling, even if one was holding onto Gherard's arm.

"I keep telling you, you bastard: this Riolu escapes the two of us. Killing him is a waste, and you know it. He and that Eevee have breached this laboratory's defense not once, but twice, something that has never happened as far as you've let us know." Even if he was down in that situation, he couldn't help insult the bastard for making his life harder than it already was.

"You are right." John said, a sudden smile on his face as he looked at the unconscious Pokémon. "Killing this dog would be a waste." He secured his pistol and put it away. "You can stop threatening with your phone, boy. I'm not going to kill it." He said. "Ok I'm willing to let you pursue that fox that escaped." He said. "However, this dog is heading for the Arena, with the next shipment." He said. "Before you say anything. This place is mine. I put my own money on building this lab and on the research that here goes, also there's some on yours. And I'm sick of seeing you moving around like you own the fucking place! Like the only experiments that matters are yours and yours only! Well Gherard, too bad. You are under my roof and you'll follow my orders. Now you can go willingly or they'll just carry you out." He finished.

Gherard threatened again with the phone, but groaned, knowing that this wouldn't get him anywhere, and calling the big boss over something like this would've done more harm than good. John knew it, and he knew it, if anything he'd given in because he would've had both of their heads on a silver platter had he called. "Very well… No information of this Riolu leaving though, otherwise they might not return. And I know very well how to get down to my lab John, because as you said, I pretty much own the fucking place." He left the room but not before he said one last thing. "And I stand by what I said: the experiments I'm conducting would most likely net us more money and results than your little fruitless investigation, from the which the only thing we've gotten are those freaks. Meanwhile, this place has been running on my generator for two months now." After dropping those facts, he left the room and closed the door behind him.

Once silence set into the room the human put his hands on the table looking over the Riolu's body for a moment. "You've given me enough headaches. But maybe we can get some profit out of your… seemingly unusual capacities, dog." With that he signaled his last guard. "Take this dog and the other beasts of his room. We are sending a shipment to the Arena." He said. The guard did as told taking Eric and carrying him away.

* * *

 **Present**

A whole day had passed since then, and Gherard was simply sitting in his room, smoking and staring at the messy blackboard in front of him. From top to bottom, there were equations, various post-it notes on the borders, and the other side was completely full too. His investigation had led him to that point… and then that joke of a scientist had gotten in his way and taken away the only clue he had. Words couldn't express the anger that festered inside of him, his own pride having been turned to shreds as he was stomped by someone who was for some reason more powerful than he was. It was as it always happened: those that were in power were the least deserving of it, and John had proven himself to be a fool on several occasions.

Everyone knew he was still around because his drugs helped to make a large amount of money for the team, but asides from that his investigation had done nothing but waste time, money and resources. He got up and grabbed his lab coat, walking out of his room with the intention of taking a stroll outside to clear his thoughts. John had 'confined' him to the scientist quarters underneath the mansion… but once again, as John had said, he essentially owned the place, walking over to the elevator and typing in a code that called it down. Once inside he ascended to the ground floor, and took the shortest route to the outside, admiring the paintings and suits of armor that John had arranged and showcased inside the halls of his modest sized mansion.

"The swine doesn't have any taste for art anyways, this is all just for show." He kept muttering to himself as he looked at the carpet underneath, adorned with an orange square pattern that he found soothing. In front of him, a door leading to the outside through the back of the house, grabbing the handle and twisting it… when it was suddenly flung backwards, and him with it as it flew all the way across the hallway and sliding on the carpet, splinters flying everywhere as the suits of armor crumbled, the painting being flung and twisted on the walls and the carpet folding up with his sliding motion, a mace coming down on the remains of the door on top of him, the wood effectively saving his life.

He looked up, his body numb and his ears ringing, looking at the smoke that came from outside, his mind racing as he at first thought it to be an explosion… until he heard a mighty roar from the outside, and the giant foot of Groudon, the ground legendary crushing its way into the hallway. Once again, the alarms blared off, and the scientist quickly reacted and used all his strength, pushing the remains of the door and the mace off of him, getting up slowly and making a dash for the elevator. Halfway there he fell to his knees, groaning as he felt a fire emanating from inside the right side of his body, pressing his hand against it and feeling the hot slick liquid emanating from the open wound around a particularly large piece of wood. He limped to the steel doors and mashed in the combination, his fingers trembling as he looked back, the foot being brutally pushed away along with the massive pokémon too, disappearing from view and being replaced by a much smaller legendary: Darkrai, preparing another shadow ball.

He'd seen enough, quickly slipping into the elevator and smashing the key, leaning against the back wall and taking a short breather as the doors closed and the elevator started moving down. He usually calm ride had now turned into a stressful twenty seconds as he went down to the third level again, the doors opening to reveal several guards trying to rush inside, some taking the stairs. He slipped in between them and out the elevator, heading straight to the communications room. His own comm was buzzing, no doubt John trying to ask what the hell he had done now… but he ignored it completely, and burst into the room as the guards inside started contacting the outside, requesting back up from other Team Arena facilities. Security cameras located outside showed what was happening, and what he saw surprised him beyond belief: legendary pokémon were outside, and were engaged in a brutal fight.

* * *

Ebony Port was bustling with activity as usual, ships docking and unloading their merchandise, right next to the commercial district. Shops and stands selling various products, from fresh fish caught at the sea that very morning, to technological devices like televisions. It was in front of this shop however, where the cloaked creature was currently resting, looking at the passerby's, intimidating them as they quickly rushed once their eyes met. As it pondered on what it's next move could be, loud music came from his back, standing up and turning around as the words "Breaking News" flashed through the screen.

"An unprecedented event is now taking place near the south of Renol Island! Just a few minutes ago, several legendary pokémon have appeared near the area and have started a massive battle in front of a mansion! The locals are unsure of what may have provoked the sudden battle royale, but some of the identified legendaries are Adam the Mewtwo and Dante the Suicune…" They said more names after those, but the Pursuer had ceased to pay attention after that. Those two were the legendaries that had been talking about their marks… and if they were there, it was safe to assume that they were close by.

It didn't even take that long to make the teleport, appearing behind the woman and surprising the camera crew and the newscaster herself, then quickly teleported into the battle, rushing inside the mansion for cover as he saw a sea of flames coming down from the skies, Moltres flying up above and raining down his searing fire on those underneath. Standing outside would spell out doom for him, and there was no way his targets were there. Therefore, he opted to explore the mansion, adrenaline pumping through its veins at the thought of finally finding his marks, once again having the surprise factor on its side.

* * *

"Behind you!" Eric sharply turned around at Phal's alert and blocked the incoming strike from a Gliscor, fighting back against it and letting Axia take care of him, a vine whip smacking him across the face and breaking his concentration long enough for Eric to bury the end of his staff into its stomach and send him away. The siren sounded off and the match ended, the trio cheering again as they managed to save more pokémon than the last time, the humans shouting and roaring in anger as their bets were null and void, many blaming the three pokémon defending those unconscious. They weren't the only ones this time around however, their efforts having infused many pokémon there with hope, defending the innocents.

Same as last time, they were all carried away downstairs, and once everything had calmed down and only pokémon remained in the cell area, those there cheered and celebrated their efforts, though stopped once the humans came down with their food. There was a tangible difference between the food bowls for those that had saved pokémon as opposed to those who killed, the latter getting insulted looks from the former, some unable to look at the others in the eye and instead eating their food in silence and shame, whilst others took pride in this, as if boasting they'd be more likely to survive the next blood bath.

Eric, Phal and Axia's portions were incredibly small when compared to the latter, but it kept them going for the time being. As they ate, Eric and Axia conversed, the Riolu now talking about her mate. "And she is incredibly powerful. She inherited psychic powers from her mother, an Espeon, and she's extremely proficient with them."

"She sounds lovely… she's lucky to have you. Wish a guy like you would come sweep me off my feet… or rather had come, because now there's no chance in hell I'm meeting someone nice, neither here or outside. Being in the wild has its advantages, sure, not having to be carried around by a trainer and all of that… but good luck finding someone who isn't a complete jerk to you whilst not being of your clan."

"What do you mean? Wouldn't the pokémon here be collaborating towards survival?" Eric's words earned him an amused glance from the Treecko.

"Are you kidding me? Where have you been for the last fifty years or something? Situation in the wild is pretty brutal. Let me explain with my own life: start off like a nice sweet girl, her parents care for her very much and her seven brothers and sisters, then about the time I hit thirteen everyone's shutting me out and telling me to look for my own food. If you don't, you uh… starve to death! I mean, us grass types can just ingrain ourselves into the ground and get nutrients that way, though it can't completely sustain us, we need to eat actual food to have a healthy diet."

Eric nodded as she explained what she herself defined as the 'rules of nature'. "So, in short, only those who stand out survive for a long time, and those who don't just beaten around?"

"Pretty much! You forgot to mention the part where everyone will be after your rear around that same age and will start offering you food to gain your favor! But honestly, at that point I just didn't give a damn: all of the males in my clan were just ass lickers desperate to get someone like me, who could actually go out and hunt down sources of food without getting bruised and battered by whoever got in my way. Always been good with my vines, hence why this whole situation just doesn't faze me."

Eric nodded, returning to eating his almost flavourless food bits, holding back gags at the almost sand like texture, which came apart incredibly quickly in his mouth and dried it completely, almost like putting cinnamon in his mouth. He looked at Phal, noticing he'd barely touched his food. "What about you? Are you alright?"

"What about you? Why are you here?" His question confused Eric. "No, and I don't mean how you got here… I mean who you are, and where the hell you came from. You talk like a human, saying 'guy' instead of 'male', barely know anything about the wild, and you definitely haven't been trained by a human… so what the fuck's your deal? You come out of nowhere, uproot and destroy everything these humans have forced upon us, and present yourself as some sort of savior. **I don't trust you.** "

Both he and the grass type looked at him, confused. "This isn't exactly the time to be having these thoughts, Phal, I've already helped you get out of th-"

"You mean get me out of the laboratory where I got my arms torn to shreds and into the place where I can't even fight with my arms? Yeah right, you know what I'm starting to think? You're just some sort of double agent or some shit like that trying to get us all to follow your game, and then use us for some stunt! You've been real quiet about your backstory, but been asking Axia's, so I'm not going to tell you mine until YOU tell me yours first!"

"Phal, why are you asking me all of a sudden? Why are you making so many damn conspiracy theories all of a sudden?! We need to focus and help the pokém-"

"To hell with that! You know why I was piling them up in the first place? So I could kill them all and get me some food! I've been starving ever since I got locked up, the only chance I get to enjoy some food, and I get blocked by you! To hell with ya'll, I just want to survive and live to see the end of all this!" His shouts could be heard throughout the entire cell blocks area as he sat down and turned to face away from his two 'allies'. Eric didn't know what to say, though Axia had plenty to say and do, grabbing her food bowl, slipping it in between the bars and throwing it at him, smashing the food everywhere.

"You want food?! Have it, you scumbag!" She shouted from the other corner of the room, and everyone fell silent. Eric refused to look at the Riolu, and instead focused on his food. All of a sudden, he wasn't hungry anymore, hearing the sound of someone's foot tapping against the floor and someone sobbing. Whatever had triggered that sort of response in Phal… he just didn't know. It wasn't like he was entirely in the wrong, and there was some sense in his words: given all that had happened and what those monsters were capable of, a spy amongst the ranks of pokémon wasn't too far fetched, and he'd been extremely secretive about his origins too. Still, there was no denying his good deeds, and Phal knew it.

They didn't speak for the rest of their down time, and soon the humans came to pick the cages for the next fight. Paradoxically though, they picked up all their cages, including some of the pokémon that had previously helped them and opted to not fight and defeat those who wanted to prolong the bloodshed. Once they were in the elevators, they were risen up to the surface, coming out to the very same arena they'd already fought at countless times. He looked around and found Axia, whose eyes were stuck in front of her, and looking in the same direction he saw Phal, who had his eyes closed, before opening them and looking directly at him. His eyes betrayed his emotions, and for a second Eric saw a streak of guilt flashing through them, but didn't have time to ponder further as the sirens marked the beginning of the fight.

Everything went as normal, albeit Phal opted to stay out of trouble and avoid any and all fighting. Six pokémon, among the which were Eric and Axia, fought against the more violent ones, whilst a larger quantity of them were avoiding the fights altogether. However, as the timer came down to the half time, a mighty roar was heard, and a giant Haxorus was released from one of the gates. " **Uh oh folks, looks like we've got a special event in our hands! A berserk pokémon has just been released into the arena!** " The crowd roared, and they all knew what was happening: they'd gotten tired of those pokémon surviving the battles, and decided to take it upon themselves to clean up.

Eric was the first to engage the enraged pokémon, ducking under a swipe of its claws, but being smacked into a wall by the tail, and as he hit the wall a shadow ball followed closely, barely able to defend himself as he threw a sphere at it and blew it up, throwing him away. He slid on his side and stood back up the Haxorus rushing to him, but was saved at the last second by a Beheeyem, who received the brunt of the claws and had his entire side ripped open, blood spewing everywhere. Eric heard a name being shouted, thought it was eclipsed by the shouts of pain at his feet and the bloodthirsty roar from the Haxorus, barely spotting those orange streaks he'd seen so often in his own world: that pokémon standing in front of him was none other than a primal!

The split second he took to recognize the threat was enough for another blow to rain down, this time summoning his light staff and blocking them, punch after punch raining down on him as he skillfully backed away step by step, being put closer and closer to the far wall as metallic sounds echoed in the arena in unison with the audience's cheers, weapon and fists meeting constantly. His own exhaustion caught up to him, and his knees buckled against one of the hits, knocking the staff away, and then received a visceral uppercut that would've normally knocked his head right off, but luckily survived the blow and was lucky to not have bitten his tongue, albeit his teeth, jaw and head hurt a lot, barely hanging on to consciousness. He looked up and spotted the Haxorus, moving in to deal the final blow…

When his light staff soared across the air and hit the pokémon square in the jaw, blowing up and hurling it away like a ragdoll. As he faded out of view, he saw a teal Riolu walk up to him, getting him back up on his feet and taking him to the wall. "Good grief… you are god damn idealistic views… coulda just looked out for himself and gotten out of this situation… but no, you just had to try and save everyone. Because you're a hero, aren't you?" Phal asked, placing him down. "That's gonna get you killed one day, y'know? Is it just something you born with? You know, having a thick skull?" He tapped the Riolu's head, eliciting a groan of pain, though he was smiling.

"You're also incredible and making people feel like shit bro. You and Axia… you schooled me back there… But y'know what? I'm willing to give you another shot after seeing you receive such a beating." Eric couldn't answer, though his eyes were more focused behind Phal, or more specifically at the charging Haxorus. Phal had already noticed him, as his loud steps were incredibly hard to not identify, and quickly turned on a dime and kicked him square in the stomach, a wave of aura pushing it's way from his foot and hitting the Haxorus, knocking him away. "Might've picked up a few pointers from you, hope you don't mind me stealing your style!" He tensed up ready for battle, jumping up and down on the same spot, looking at the Haxorus with that cocky smile of his. "Now… it's go time!"

* * *

Before the alarms came buzzing off at the labs, almost tearing every Pokémon's eardrums apart, Dark had been again thrown into the pit. At the moment he was made to fight a red Mienshao. His illusions had proven slightly less effective against this one but still it fell for a few that didn't involve mirror images of the Zoroark.

Radius was enduring his own overcharge while he shared a room with Natalie for some sort of test for some kind of drug. At that moment the only thing he knew was that he wanted her and couldn't resist, and that she smelled quite appealing. He forced himself to resist as much as he could but it was too much for him, more so when Natalie came to him by herself, her look showing she was in pretty much the same state as him.

And to finish it, Shade was enduring another round of the evolution forcing. The rest of the Eevee were still resisting, and Shade had gotten the lead since Elly had left. The Shiny being much more confident and rebellious now. Sometimes, a brave Eevee followed in the steps of that brave Jolteon who had evolved to protect the others from the shocks, but other than that, they never gave up. This time however, she had heard that a few were going to attempt to escape. Their plan was to let themselves evolve into Vaporeon and then break out of the barrels and use Water gun to knock off the guns from the guards' hands. Shade didn't know how to react to this when they came to her with this idea. That was one of the moments she'd love to have Elly by her side for counsel.

However, they didn't have time to carry out with the plan, as when the humans came with the barrels was when the place shook and the alarms started buzzing. Everyone was stunned for a moment, Pokémon and humans alike, but one of the Eevee was quick to react. "Quick! Make them throw their weapons!" One called as a Shadow ball flew at one of the guards' weapons, weak as it was it was enough to make the man lose grip on his weapon. The rest followed suit, even Shade, Shadow balls and swift flew around, making the scientists cover and causing the guards to aim at them an instant before losing their weapons.

"To the door!" Shade called and everyone began to rush out of that place, the bigger of the Eevee's in size picking up the smaller so they weren't left behind while everyone used quick attack to get out of there as soon as possible.

"Now what!?" Other of The Eevee asked. At that moment one of the doors of that halfway was blasted open and a bunch of different sized Eeveelutions came out, looking at the Eevee's for a moment before joining in on the march. Some of them still had the shackles with the which they had been restrained, but none of that mattered. However, before anyone could ask again about an escape plan, a figure appeared in front of them, making them stop in their tracks. The figure was covered in black to the point that it was impossible to make out its face, but they could feel its eyes on them.

On another hallway, Radius was running with Natalie on his back. The slight overcharge he still had had had been a great help when he had blasted the door that held them out of its place. The Jolteon was running, looking for his sister. The first place he thought on was the room where they had held them, but he hadn't found her there. After blasting open all of the locks on the cages and helping getting rid of the chokers by frying the circuits, everyone rushed out of there, the Charmeleon that had been a pain in the ass to share room with told him that they had gotten Shade away to whatever experiment, and then a Vaporeon told him that it would surely be to try and make her evolve as they had done with him. From then on, Rad tried to follow her scent. Which was almost impossible since the place that normally smelled of nothing now had a lot of scents from a lot of Pokémon. However, something within himself pulled him in one direction and he followed the feeling.

Dark hadn't noticed the tremor, and was practically ignoring the alarms while battling the fighting type. "Come on! Snap out of it, kid!" The fighting-type was saying as he tried to hold the Zoroark down. The red Mienshao had noticed that something wasn't right with him. He couldn't possibly be fighting for them, and he was fighting as if he was trying to survive. However, there wasn't even a word coming from him, just growls, snarls, barks and howls.

However, another tremor shook the place, this one making a section of the room cave in and giving them an escape route through the walls, Dark pushed his rival off and would have delivered the killing blow if not because the fighting type ran away towards the hole in the wall. He followed and, after climbing for a bit, they ended in the hallways on a lower level.

* * *

Just out of the corner of their eye, they saw a cloaked figure dashing through the hallways, slipping into the shadows cast by the lights and ran straight into a mob of soldiers. It teleported, and a flurry of slashes later a pool of blood laid at its feet, grabbing a human's head with its hand and smashing it against the wall, the dim light only showing the subsequent blood spurt. With the path cleared, it headed down to the fourth and last level, making its way around and following a suspicious trail of blood drops.

The trail was being left behind, of course, by Gherard, who limped through the hallways as he desperately made his way to the dark matter laboratory, the only place where he knew he'd be safe from whatever was out there destroying the mansion. Just as he opened the door however, the Pursuer came around the corner, and their eyes crossed for a mere instant. In that moment the Pursuer read through his mind, and the most recent memory being that of a certain Riolu made him charge the human, knocking him inside the room and grasping his head.

Not knowing what was happening, Gherard quickly reacted by grasping the wooden stake in his side and stabbing it into his foe's. Luckily for him, its wounds from the previous encounter with his marks had yet to fully heal, eliciting a shout of pain that allowed Gherard to get the creature off of him. They both stood their ground, staring at each other for a long period of time, the human feeling its psychic presence inside of his head. However, it was interrupted when it glanced to his side, staring at the container of dark matter. "Interesting…" It spoke for the first time it had arrived at that world, the chilling voice, which Gherard understood with incredible ease, shook him to his core: he was speaking in a human dialect, or it was his psychic powers… either way, this… creature, behaved in ways that reminded him of… the Riolu.

"What is?" It turned around to face him with his defiant tone.

"Dark Matter… How curious that a world such as this would have this substance in it…" Gherard's eyes widened, his suspicions about the Riolu and this creature being related basically confirmed. "You have been researching it, and yet you've yet to find out what it's true power is…"

"Wh- What do you mean? Do you know the secrets to the dark matter?!" He took a tentative step forward, the thought of this speech being a trap not even crossing his head: just now, he felt like he was the closest he'd ever been. The creature turned to face him, and noticed a detail about its eyes: it had heterochromia, with its right eye being a slightly darker tinge of purple whilst the left one was a clearer one.

"Yes… allow me…" It summoned a blade and stuck it into the vat of dark matter, the liquid surging out as Gherard panicked… but then realized that it was just what the creature intended. "To show you." Were the last words it said before it disappeared, teleporting away from that room as the dark matter rose up, spheres and drops of it defying the laws of gravity as they came together by an invisible force, creating a bipedal creature…

* * *

On the upper levels, the escaping Pokémon were fighting their own fight. In groups they had been freeing the other Pokémon of their cages and collars, and fighting the Pokémon and Humans from Team Arena that stood on their way. Now that they could actually do something to defend themselves it wasn't that easy for the guards to keep them in check, this fact coming to show everyone how much humanity depends on their devices, and thus the Pokémon had taken to themselves to destroy whatever human device they saw, from cameras to computers.

As this was going inside. Outside, hiding nearby, Dust was waiting, same as everyone else, yet he was observing the raging skirmish around the mansion. Jake's plan had worked, but now it left them with the risk of getting caught in the middle of the battlefield. Groudon had torn the floor up to summon ruby tipped spikes from underneath, and not only once, Moltres was sending her fire to rain on them all, the flames enhanced thanks to the overheat provided by the Ground type's ability. Even then Darkrai was able to fight his massive enemy with almost as much ease as a strategist making a dozen of plans. While up in the skies, Moltres was confronted by a Braviary, who rammed itself into the fire type, surprisingly throwing it back before its body glowed and its shape shifted to a Dragonair with pink pearls that started falling down as it threw a weakened Hydro pump towards the fire type. The water heated up didn't do much damage but still it weighed down by getting her feathers wet, as the Dragonair fell, it shifted again, this time changing into a Flygon and recovering its flight.

The battle was impressive, but there was no time to gaze upon it. Dust turned around and looked at them all, biting his lip, he knew they couldn't rush things but that didn't take away that he was dying to get on the move and save his family and his friend.

They had taken a day to reach the island, after all they had asked a favor to an old captain friend, that way almost every Pokémon on the Kaiser household could go on this rescue mission. Few had stayed behind, like Emily, since she didn't have experience in battling and had never trained. They couldn't afford having to take care of her as well.

On the other hand, Hadrim and Luca had explained a few things to Daniel and Clara. To the point that they had ended up worried but understanding most of what was happening, and had let them handle things on their own. The Espeon looked at his son, seeing him distressed but holding back. It wasn't hard to understand, the psychic type himself had troubles keeping his cool with this situation, and Luca was punching the air and giving some kicks to relieve the stress. Luna was looking forth at the battlefield, specifically at the mansion, her thoughts racing, wondering if her mother was there, or still alive all together. However, with what Elly had said that those fuckers did to Pokémon it was foolish to keep that hope up with all the time that had passed since they got separated, even then, she couldn't help herself, and at the same time, Shade and the others were there as well. ' _I can't doubt now. If she's here or dead or neither I won't know if I doubt._ ' She thought, steeling herself for whatever news might come.

"Alright we're going in right now. Is everybody ready?" Serge asked. Elly was on his back, grabbing on to him with her wounded paw wrapped in bandages. Zed had stayed behind to take care of the humans and hide them in case something happened, Lucy was there besides Serge, leaning out from behind the rocks and staring at the battle, and Nox and Jake were checking to make sure they had some supplies for emergencies. Thankfully, they had bandages and other healing ointments if the need arose. "Alright then… Nox, on my back! Lucy, Jake, make your way to shore, and everyone else follow them!" Serge spread his wings, signaling the start of their assault. "Let's go!" With his words, everyone gathered, the tension of some mixing with the anticipation as they got on the move.

Serge flew forward, the two pokémon on his back whilst Lucy dashed down to the water, going as fast as she could and leaving an afterimage as she gained enough speed to travel on the water itself, heading towards the island, whilst Jake jumped down and twisted his fingers, throwing a coat of ice that flash froze the surface of the water, effectively making a trail of ice that connected that small rock to the actual island itself, a path the rest of the Kaisers took. Once on the shore, they could see the captain's ship approaching the location they had pinpointed him, the pipes through the which they wanted the pokémon to make their escape, and immediately made their way to the middle of the battle zone. In the middle of the chaos, almost none of the legendaries noticed the group of pokémon rushing inside the open hole on the floor, leading down to a test area underneath.

However, two of them did, the only two that were expressively looking out for that group: Adam and Dante laid eyes on the group, and didn't take them off until they were out of sight. Both knew what had to be done.

* * *

Back inside, Radius was still looking for a way out, Shade glued to her brother and Natalie still being carried by him, the Espeon awake but too weak at the moment to move, while the Jolteon was taking advantage that the overcharge he received had let him enough energy to keep moving after their ordeal together. "We've freed a lot of Pokémon but still no sign of Dark or Eric." Shade said. "You don't think they-" She started to ask but was interrupted.

"Don't say that, sis. Don't say that until you see them." Radius said, not wanting to think the worse as they kept looking around. "Damnit! If only we knew the way Eric and Elly took to escape!" He cursed, stopping for a moment to look around into the rooms which doors had been torn down or blasted open by the other Pokémon, who were also looking for a way out of that place.

Pokémon had almost overrun that entire level, but there were still many humans holding their ground, as they came out to one of the main rooms, a wide open area with computers, test tubes and plenty of furniture, they soon found themselves walking into a straight up war zone. Bodies lay on the floor bleeding out from heavy wounds either from bullets or various pokémon moves whilst two sides were fighting to the death: pokémon resistant to bullets made up most of the front lines, psychic barriers and steel types offering cover to those that were weakened and or wounded and those who were fighting back with their own projectiles.

The fight came to a close soon however, as the humans were struck from the back: Team Star and the Kaisers rushed out from one of the hallways, having infiltrated the laboratories through the various holes that had been opened up and wrecked havoc behind the human lines, furniture and their cover flying off and away as they all came in in a chaotic mess of attacks, aura staves, wind gusts and a giant Riolu fist that fought back most of their forces, Elly and Hadrim taking up the duty of blocking and disarming all their weapons. "Retreat! Retreat to the lower levels!" Voices started calling for backup, but most followed the command to fall back and the humans left the area, some staying behind to either finish the fight or bleed out from wounds provoked by the brutal fighting, though none made by Team Star or the Kaisers. They had only knocked out those despicable humans.

After the fight was done the Pokémon cheered for the small victory they had accomplished. It was then when one of them, a certain Jolteon whose voice Elly might remember, approached them. "Nice timing there. This was starting to last too long for some." He said. The yellow, fur and extremely short tail being indication enough to say that this wasn't Radius. The Jolteon then noticed that the new arrivals had much more healthy aspect than then. "Wait a second. Did you really just came in into this hellhole on your own will?" He asked bewildered and calling the attention of some others.

"What!? Why would anyone do that!?" Another asked.

"Are they crazy or something?" Came a third voice.

"We came here to rescue our friends!" Luna barked from the middle of the group.

"Not just them…" Elly cleared her voice as she told Serge to step forward. "Attention to all pokémon and human test subjects! We've come to save you from the hands of these terrible humans! There is a benevolent human ship just outside of this laboratory, on the island's shore, waiting for all of you so that you may be taken away to safety!" Her voice was loud enough to be heard in that entire room. "If you know of anyone who isn't here and may be stuck somewhere else in these laboratories, go look for them! The escape route is down on the third level, in the waste disposal area!" She looked down at Nox. "Think you'll be able to blow up those things?" She was obviously referring to the fans that minced all the waste.

"You kiddin' me?" The sound of a human grabbing and cocking a gun was heard from behind the mob, but Nox quickly fulminated him with a fireball, his hand catching on fire and dropping the gun, the running away screaming. "There's nothing these flames can't melt!"

"Oi oi, don't get carried away now…" Serge muttered.

Hearing her, whispering started to raise, questions if it was her, the one that managed to escape, and questions of why would she risk getting caught again. Yet most of the doubts were silenced the moment they saw the Houndour do that. Some stood silent, others cried to him to kill the human, and there was shouts of mockery to the escapist, or just cheering at this. The reactions were plentiful. Even one tried to follow up and finish the job, but was stopped. However, many thanked the pokémon that had come to their rescue, crying tears of joy at the idea that their torment was coming to an end. At the same time, Luca and Hadrim were looking amongst those present there, trying to see any of their cubs, but couldn't see anything. In the end they started to ask for them before the Pokémon got scattered.

Team Star split then: Serge and Nox left, accompanied by Luca and Dust, whilst the rest went further down to go find the other Kaisers.

Meanwhile, on the hallways, Radius, Natalie and Shade were still looking for any sign of Dark or Eric or both, room by room. Only finding test rooms devoid of any presence, even the holding rooms only had empty cages on them, and the Jolteon was starting to grow desperate. "Damnit!" He cursed and laid down in the middle of the hallway. Shade sitting by his side. They had looked into every room of that level and got nothing, not even a trace of scent. Their only landmark that signaled that they had looked everywhere being a hole on the wall and floor just down that hallway.

"Come on, Rad." Natalie tried to stay positive. "They not being here doesn't mean they are not on another floor." She said.

"She's right bro!" Shade joined in, both females trying to cheer the male. It took a bit but he realized they were right. There were other floors in this place after all, and so he stood and started to move again.

Meanwhile, Mienshao was still running away from the enraged Zoroark hot on his trail. The fighting type climbed through the caved in hole, going up as much as it could, surprised by the speed the dark type could keep to follow up. The rodent had a plan, and for it to work he had to keep the fox on hot pursuit. He wasn't planning on killing him, but he needed to tire him out before he could do his thing.

After a little while more of climbing, the Mienshao came out of the hole and into a hallway, then waited. Looking to both sides he saw a Jolteon, Eevee and Espeon. "You three get away from here now!" He called.

Radius, Natalie and Shade looked at this with wide eyes. The Jolteon about to ask what the fighting type meant but he didn't have time to ask for explanations as Dark bursted out of the hole lunging for the Mienshao, who just dodged and made sure the Zoroark was focused on him before running for it again. With a howl, the dark fox kept the chase. Hunting instincts kicking in and he wasn't letting his prey go.

The other three followed quickly, running after them. The chase wasn't long, as Mienshao went into a big room where he found a lot of Pokémon, the surprise made him trip and fell down, giving the Zoroark the chance to lung, pin him down while growling like a beast and prepared to deal a killing blow with an extremely sharp looking shadow claw. All the Kaiser saw this and everyone recognized Dark. Hadrim was the fastest to react seeing this and quickly formed a shell around the mienshao. The hit from the Zoroark made a ringing noise in his head as the attack collided, the clash making a sound similar to that of a big bell.

Pushing aside the nuisance feeling, Hadrim got in the middle between Dark and the Mienshao and looked at the Zoroark intently. "Get out of here." He said to the fighting type, who quickly got to his feet and ran to the crowd. Dark tried to follow but stopped as the Espeon jumped in his way. Their eyes met and the Espeon recognized the flowing orange glow, and immediately got into stance. ' _What have they done to him?_ ' The Espeon thought.

"What the fuck are you doing Dark!?" Luna asked but the Zoroark didn't seem to hear her as he lunged for the Espeon, who teleported out of the way to appear over him and deliver a hard iron tail to the Zoroark's head. and then teleported in front of him as he regained his footing. Had didn't loose time and summoned a psychic wave that pushed him off balance as the dark type rose and then wiped his legs off from under him with another iron tail.

"Help me hold him down." Hadrim asked as he used his psychic this time to pin Dark to the floor, asking for help as he saw the Zoroark pushing against his hold. Luna didn't lost time and ran to the downed Zoroark, jumping over his chest and jumping, trying to push him down with her weight. Elly, who was walking without Serge's support, quickly used her dark matter to pin down his legs so that he wouldn't move, whilst Lucy and Jake grabbed his arms and help him in place, offering support to the Espeon.

"Calm the heck down, you thick skulled idiot!" Luna barked at him in his face, calling his attention this time. Not being able to move or fight, his eyes focused more, and his mind recognized the Vulpix on top of him, eyes going wide and his struggling losing strength. Hadrim caught this and came into his field of view.

"Wake up, Dark. You are not this beast!" He said, if only to get him to look at him, which he managed and the Zoroark recognized him as well.

Dark looked around at the others. He recognized Jake and Lucy, his struggling had subsided as the orange glow on his eyes was disappearing, leaving only his normal eye coloration as both the effect of the drug wore off completely, and he came back to his senses. After a bit his breathing was slower, and he had stopped moving all together, eyes closed for a moment as he tried to order his thoughts. His head hurt like hell, just like the last time he had been sent into a forced rampage. When he opened them again he stood there, looking at the ceiling of the room. Hadrim slowly let go of his hold, daring to sense his mind. The rage was gone, instead he felt shame, and suddenly pain as his muscles tensed and the dark type trembled in place and he half grunted and half whimpered in pain, a reaction any electric move user would recognize and that didn't last long.

Lucy identified the shock and subsequent paralysis, and even felt a slight park of electricity surging from him, but she ignored it, thinking it was just static. "Finally… took you long enough to come to reason, you big edgy furball!"

"You should try it. It's not that bad if you take aside seeing all red and feeling like tearing down walls." He said, a clear tone of irony tainting those words. "Jokes aside, that shit's awful to be through. And leaves a hard hangover." He added afterwards, taking a paw to his head.

"Nah, I think I'll pass on the edge. Already got enough of it on this team. Anyways, glad to see you're still alive and kicking!"

"Same here. And glad to see you lot."

"Not to break a friendly encounter but I think we should leave the party for later." Luna spoke up as she jumped down from his chest. "We still have to find the other four. And check if there's more caged Pokémon."

"There's also another we need to take care of: The Dark Matter." The rest of Team Star looked at Elly, worried, and she just shook her head. "No point in keeping it a secret anymore. We're going to go find it anyways."

"The… what?" The Vulpix asked.

"Weren't you guys wondering how Eric and I made our escape in the first place? We were thrown into a container of dark matter and survive it thanks to our powers… Somehow, these humans have gotten a hold of it, and we need to destroy it."

"For those who haven't read our story… Dark Matter is what Clades used to create the army of Rebscura that sieged treasure town and killed hundreds of innocents. Should those humans figure out a way to manipulate and create it this would would most likely meet it's end." Jake calmly explained the situation, though there was nothing calm about him: he was ready to go down there and get the job done, for such was the risk of letting that stuff unwatched.

"Ok. I get that it's dangerous." Luna hadn't even touched **any** book on the house, including theirs, so she knew nothing about anything on it, but the information let clear that it was 'dangerous shit' and knowing that was enough for her.

"If they had that thing here I guess they were trying to study it, so there must be investigations and recordings. Things that is better get rid of that left untouched." Hadrim said.

"I know exactly who we need to find for that… now we just need to get down there and destroy it. The elevators are near, so let's move it!" Elly took the lead and limped over to the elevator doors, a determined look on her face. She called it with her powers and the doors opened, and everyone took it down to the bottom floor. Of course, it moved at a crawling pace for the adrenaline that was surging through their bodies at the time, and they could hear gunfire and shots from outside coming from the other floors, most likely the sound of pokémon and human test subjects fighting for their freedom… but eclipsing all of that were peaceful tunes coming from the elevator's speakers. 'Don't worry…. be happy.' Albeit cheerful, it didn't do much to lift their spirits.

Once the elevator reached the bottom floor however, the elevator went dark all of a sudden, and lost its power. They heard a mighty roar from outside, and everyone tensed up, unsure of what was happening. The sound of something big walking just outside of the elevator's door could be heard. The sounds stopped for just a second… before claws pierced through the doors like butter and pried them open slowly, scaring everyone inside the elevator to death, though the sight that awaited outside was even more terrifying.

The distorted, melting face of a Clawer type Rebscura awaited, barely visibly thanks to the blinking emergency lights which only exalted it's terrifying experience, metal screeching and sparks flying off as it destroyed the elevator from the outside as it roared at them, it's yellow slit like eyes fixated on the pokémon as it kept trying to get in. It's breath didn't smell like anything, but an air of death and decay filtered in from behind it as everyone instinctively backed away. Elly's eyes went wide open as she froze for a split second, unable to believe what she was seeing as she and Lucy got flashbacks to those horrible times, with the Shinx screaming incoherently, Jake's breathing rapidly increasing as it's contorted face with fangs and dripping of dark matter stood inches away from them.

All thoughts of everything had stopped for Hadrim, Dark and Luna as they watched such a beast. That was going to be an image that they wouldn't forget, ever. Luna felt a scream building up in her throat as her breathing accelerated by moments before she rushed to hide in the first place available as hiding spot, that being Dark's mane, who had his eyes wide open and his heart racing painfully within his chest. His mind in complete denial that such a beast could even exist, for him this had to be some twisted nightmare come from the broken mind of a lunatic. All the while, Hadrim's mind was chanting that this was impossible as his body reaction was similar to Dark's, paralyzed by fear, even if he knew about the creature because of the book. One thing is to read and imagine it, other thing is having it breathing down your face.

Elly was quick to react, roaring as her black sphere transformed into a massive fist and smashed itself into the Rebscura's face. They could all see the entire thing contorting and deforming into an indescribable mass that shot out down the hall. The creature roared as it rolled on the floor, then quickly reformed and rushed forward, and was met by a mighty thunderbolt from Lucy, smiting it and stopping it on it's tracks.

The attacks snapped Hadrim and Dark out of their stupor, and the Zoroark was the first to try. Summoning an aura sphere on one paw and a Shadow ball on the other as he crossed his arms in front of him and then threw both balls towards the beast as they spiraled around one another as if they were on each other's orbits, while Hadrim charged a psybeam that he threw right behind Dark's Double ball. Luna meanwhile, was still too scared and hiding into Dark's mane, holding tightly to the red hair.

Elly took the chance from the two attacks to pound it some more, icicles flying forward and embedding themselves into the creature's body. With his hand open, the Sneasel then clutched into a fist and they blew up violently, tearing it apart. Finally, Elly rushed in with a psychic blade and struck it directly, the main body disappearing in a cloud of black smoke, though there were drops of Dark Matter all over the floor.

After the initial attack, Dark reached into his mane and pulled her out. "Hey! Wake up! I know that thing was scary but this is not the time to be hiding!" He said to her as he forced her to look at him by having her held by the scurf of her neck. "Come on you can't leave us alone now, Luna." He kept telling her. "I thought you were braver than this." He teased her and that got her snapping.

"You can't seriously ask me not to freak out with that thing!" She barked a thim.

"I'm not. I just want you to snap out of your fear." He said leaving her back down.

"So. I get that was one of those?" Hadrim asked, still shaken but recovering.

"Yeah… that was a Rebscura… seems we were late after all." Elly said, the other two still trying to shake off the scare.

"Nasty things to fight." He shuddered as he looked at where it had been.

"You don't know the half of it! Can't touch 'em, and my bolts do next to nothing!" Lucy complained, and after calming down for a bit they all headed further in. The walls were covered in claw marks and the metal panels having been torn off and bent by the creature. The lights were destroyed too, with one of them hanging dangerously near the ground, sparks flying down to the ground as it swung back and forth. Elly had memorized those hallways from the first time she'd been in there and took them straight to the chamber with the container. There they found the shattered glass dome, pools of Dark Matter having erased the floor and made it uneven.

"That's… this is the room where it was being held, but it's in ruins." Elly pointed out, looking around and staring at the broken computers around them. Whatever information they held was long gone, so there wasn't any danger of the information to spread.

"Think it might have been the Rebscura?" Lucy asked.

"Definitely… that thing was vicious back there. Alright, we're done here, let's go b-" The sound of someone coughing up blood called their attention, everyone turning around immediately to face the source. There, at the foot of the ruined container, barely visible and in a pool of his own blood, was Gherard, the head scientist that had been experimenting with the dark matter and that Elly had met when he took her away with Eric for the test. He smiled when their eyes met.

"I knew… you'd come back…"

* * *

 **Alright, before you jump down my throat, I need to say a couple things: the first, and foremost, sorry for taking so long to write this one and put it out. Loads of things happened, most of it personal stuff, and the new year just begun… so that's the first thing.**

 **The second, and probably the thing that will come as a surprise to most, is that this fic is almost done. Next chapter will most likely be the last one. And it is not because we've run out of ideas or anything else. It's a bit more complicated than that, but basically, this crossover has transformed into a much more ambiguous project than we had anticipated and is actively blocking the progress of our fics. Because of that, we've started to feel burnt out, but rather than leave it all unfinished, we decided to put this final arc of the story, the one you're reading right now, at this part, and managed to fit it well I'd say.**

 **It's sad, I know, and we'll have a much better explanation in the next chapter, but thank you for understanding.**

 **With care,**

 **Eric566.**


	23. Chapter 22 - A Final Confrontation

**Chapter 22**

 **A Final Confrontation**

Phal dashed and slid underneath the incoming claw, kicking up and knocking it out of the way he got up to the Haxorus' eye level and delivered a roundhouse kick, making him twirl and move backwards, only to be tripped by a well placed vine by Axia, only for Phal to come down, climb up onto its chest and axe kick his head straight between the eyes. Its entire body jerked up with the blow, pebbles flying everywhere as it bounced up slightly, and then settled with a long hiss, which signaled the end of that pokémon's rampage. The crowd was ecstatic, but not at the fight that had just happened, but rather the death of the pokémon that had given up their lives to save Eric's, who was still struggling to get up on his feet.

The buzzer once again signaled the end of the fight, and the humans roared as the 'winners' were declared, more papers and obscenities flying into the arena, insults directed at the 'useless killing machines' that they thought those pokémon down there were. Meanwhile, they just stared back at them with baffled looks, some confused, as if staring at a mob of wailing and screeching pigs. Their eyes hid many more emotions, and even though in some anger eclipsed all, others felt pity for the miserable creatures, wondering just how many of them were truly evil or just ignorant to the pain they were inflicting.

Whatever the case may be, the damage was already done, and their impressions of them weren't going to change, no matter the circumstances, and all of them knew this as they were carried away back down underground to be replaced in the arena by more pokémon. The sky above them was cloudy, large black masses moving across the air and towards the island, foreshadowing what was to come.

Down underground, the pokémon were silent, and not a single thing was heard, even as they were bought their food. Eric looked at the human who brought his bowl with contempt, and for a second he considered throwing it at him, but alas decided to wait. He was tired of that whole situation, and his own unbreakable will was starting to show cracks, if anything because of how famished he was. He hadn't eaten a proper meal in a week, and could feel himself growing thinner and weaker, his bones on the verge of showing up through his fur and skin.

Phal's cage had been placed right next to his, and the teal Riolu was just as silent as he was, neither of them opening their maws to do anything other than eat… until the former decided to break the silence with a confession.

"I was sold."

Eric looked at Phal, confused.

"My story, remember? I was born under a trainer's care, fought at gyms and against other trainers. It was a decent life, the other team members were my friends, and our trainer fed us and kept us out of our balls for a long time every day, so it wasn't half bad. Things got progressively worse, as our trainer didn't have enough money, spending too much of it on alcohol… and then one day, I was put inside my pokéball and woke up in those labs. Last time I saw my pokéball there was a pricetag on it. 1000 poké. That's what I'm worth."

Eric could feel the resentment behind his words, those images having scarred him and affected him on such a level that had warped his way of looking at others. "From that point onward, I swore I'd never trust anyone else, and always look out for myself… I was only worth that little for that piece of shit. Quite literally, useless. Even though I was the strongest on that fucker's team…" He punched the floor once, and then again, and repeated it three times in quick succession, ending with a groan and a concerned look at his paw. "I'm sorry I took it out on you all like that… but I really didn't trust you. It was just… too good to be true, I guess." He lifted his eyes from his paw and at Eric. "So… yeah, sorry. To all of you."

Nobody said anything for a long time, just staring at the teal Riolu as they finally understood him and he, in turn, understood why they were trying to survive: all were expecting to have another shot at the life they had lost, whilst he himself had nothing to go back to, and thus simply didn't understand their reasoning up to that point. But now it was different, and they all knew it.

While carrying a trail with some drinks for the fools that were watching the Pokémon fight, she looked up as the sunlight from what was a sunny day until that moment changed. Minuscule drops of water started to fall from the sky, and soon enough a light coat of rain was falling over the island, so weak that none made much of it. However, she knew better. A day doesn't change so suddenly and the scent of rain wasn't on the air until that very moment. Her ears even caught a far rumbling. At that moment, after finishing with what she had to do for that hell's ring bar. She snuck and headed to the containment area where the Pokémon were kept.

She found a human guarding the place. "What are you doing here? Go back up and attend the clients!" He snapped at her but she didn't answer, instead, she adopted a striking pose, one that gave him a good view of her figure, and offered him very attracting beady eyes. The human was about to say something but ended up gulping as his eyes explored her body, her body had a nice build to it, it was well toned and her curves were smooth on those parts he could see. Her chest area was hard to tell, being one of the parts that she left to his imagination by using her copper furred tails to cover them, the other being the front of her hips. He explored her with his eyes, imagining how was she under those tails, at last until his eyes met hers and he felt like he couldn't take his eyes away from those golden orbs of hers. Moments before, the man fell to the floor, nose bleeding, mouth drooling and snoring like a pig.

"Tse… Easy bastard." She commented as she passed over him. The girl knelt down to look for the keys of the cages, she took them from one of his pockets. "Well this might be easier than I thought." She mumbled to herself, picking up the man from under the arms and dragging him into the containing area. She approached one of the biggest cages, left the man down without a care while the Pokémon and other trapped Pokemorph looked at her, either confused or thinking she was crazy. The girl looked inside the cage, finding an angry looking Arcanine inside that growled at her. Her look hardened and she just growled back. The feral sound and the ferocity behind that surprised some, at the same time that did seeing her tails straighten, and the fur on her head, legs and arms bristle. "You want to get out? Then quit growling at me!" She said as she unlocked the cage and opened it. The Arcanine walked out, looking at her confused as she dragged the man inside and then locked the door in case he woke up.

"There." She said and immediately she started to open cage after cage. However it was taking too long to find the keys to each cage. She was the only one with the keys and the Pokémon were too tired to help her with the locks, even then, some took it upon themselves to help her. Trying to melt them or break them somehow.

The Pokémon saw an opportunity and even some that had tried to kill the others started trying to help to free the others. After a moment and after opening Axia's cage, the Vulpix girl came to Eric's and Phal's cages and opened them to let them out. "Mind lending a hand with this? There are a lot of cages. And only one set of keys." She asked them as the other Pokémon were freed and helping. Whatever hard feeling was towards each other seemed to have been washed away at the moment.

Eric and Phal looked at each other, and even though Phal showed a hint of hesitation, a nod from the other Riolu gave him all the security he needed, and the two sprung right into the action, leading the pokémon outside and trying to break the locks in whatever way they could. However, they were too strong, and the only thing that proved effective was Eric's beams of light, aimed down towards the ground where they couldn't harm anyone.

Once everyone was free the only thing that was left was to take the others that were servicing and then get out of there.

At the same time, Zax was on top of the stands. He had formed a plan with his Pokémon. He would look for the bastard that ran the place and get information he needed out of him. Yol would go with him while the rest of his Pokémon would help everyone trapped there to escape. He ignored those looking at the fight as he started to move, looking for a way to the windowed room that rose over the arena, even over the stands, being the only place to watch the fights that was one story above the ground. "Hmf." Zax let out. ' _Fucker's got an ego as big as his belly._ ' He thought.

Down below the earth, the pokémon were slowly but surely making their way through the winding hallways of the arena, reaching the main level soon after. The human's shouts and complaints could be heard, wondering why the fights hadn't begun yet, and the announcer's voice reassured them that it would begin shortly after an altercation was solved. "In other words, they're onto us…" Eric said this and turned to face the Vulpix girl. "Hey! We can't just leave this place like this! These bastards will just do it again and again until we get rid of this place!"

"Believe me, Riolu. You **want** to get out of here asap." She said to him with a serious tone.

"And I believe that I still have unfinished business here. Someone has to pay for all that's been happening in this place and in those labs… I can't simply walk away from this place and pray that whatever is about to happen will completely end this nightmare. It'd leave a bad state in my mouth." He too, sounded serious. Even with whatever catastrophe was about to befall this place, there was a chance that whoever was in charge could get away and survive, only to start this entire arena business somewhere else. He had to stop them outright, and make sure that the story ended there himself.

"Suit yourself, then. There are still Pokemorphs to get out of the stands and the bar." She said. "I trust he'll wait until we are safe." She mumbled after that, trying to hear her own thoughts.

"Wait… you're going up there?" Phal asked his friend, baffled as to why he was even considering doing that.

"Let me guess: 'Someone has to serve that bastard's ass to him on a silver plate', right?" The girl asked.

"You make it sound as if there's something wrong with that. I've been to much more dangerous places… Trust me…" He clenched his right paw and looked at it. His emblem was buried under a small coat of dried blood, which he promptly wiped off to reveal the mark underneath, then showed it to the group. "I swear it on this symbol."

This earned him many gasps of shock, one of which came from Phal himself, whose eyes widened as he recognized the emblem. "Wait… you… you're… No way!"

"Fine. I won't even argue saying that you are tired and famished, Mister Hero. Just be sure you don't die." She said. "The rest you can either try to find an exit or help me get the others trapped here to escape with us." The girl said, she and Eric were clearly two of the most confident ones of the group.

Axia walked up to Eric, alarmed. "What are you doing?! You can't stay behind, you'll get caught by whatever's coming!"

"You heard her, we've got a bit more time before this place's wiped off the face of this earth. I only need a few minutes to end him." He sounded like he meant it, and no doubt could easily handle everything that was thrown his way. She looked like she wanted to say something, but the Treecko was silenced by Phal's comforting paw, looking at the cut up and wounded limb on her shoulder, and noticing the sincere look of admiration in the teal Riolu's eyes.

The latter stepped forward and extended a hand, an honest gesture of friendship and wishing him good luck, and the otherworldly Riolu accepted the gesture, their paws locking together to form a promise: that one would get out of that alive, and the other would find a reason to live onward… a reason that may very well have been standing next to them in the form of a grass type pokémon. The weight of their unspoken oath was tangible in the air, and even though some considered it a promise to see each other after this was all over, it was in reality a farewell, and a sincere wish for good luck to smile down upon the other. And finally, with that oath Eric looked at the vulpix girl and promised he'd be back soon, before he turned around and took running down a hallway towards the stands.

* * *

"You!" Elly had to hold herself back from grabbing the human and shaking him like a doll, mainly because he was heavily wounded and would most likely bleed out should he move. "You… you…"

"Go ahead… I do deserve it… but after that, you should listen to what I have to say…" He groaned in pain, grabbing the deep wounds on his side. "Especially if you want to know where that Riolu is." His words not only attracted the attention of the Eevee, but also Jake and Lucy, making the human chuckle. "So you're the rest of his friends… he talked highly of you before he…"

Jake stopped him there with a claw. "Where is he?" Was his simple question, but Gherard couldn't understand him anymore, motion at the broken translator besides him. Elly adapted quickly and used her psychic powers to communicate the question to the human.

"Psychic powers… You're all a wonder… so bizarre, unlike everything I've ever seen… And that mark that I found on his right paw, and the lineup of pokémon… You're all from another world, are you not?"

"Well, you're really clever aren't you?! Yes, we're from another world, and there's a book inspired by us in this world, good job figuring it out on your own! Now stop fucking talking about that garbage and tell us where Eric is!"

"Eric… I knew it… Well, if you really want to know… he's gone. He was sent to the Arena section of Team Arena to fight to the death for money… But knowing him, he's probably very much alive and doing something incredibly risky like saving innocent pokémon. Because that's just what he does, isn't it?"

There was more than just contempt in his voice, and they could feel it. There was also a slight hint of guilt and envy, something that he had to explain. "See… I had a few conversations with him, with talks about whether pokémon and humans were equals or not, family matters… Everything, and I can safely say I got a good understanding of what he thinks like…"

"You could never understand him. You're a human, you're… a monster." Elly's response left the human speechless, or rather he refused to answer her question, keeping a stern look towards the infinity behind the Eevee.

"Well… Either way, he's alive, but not for long. If you wish to save him you must go there as quickly as you can… And don't worry about the dark matter, it's all gone." He looked at the container in a mixture of repentance and fear. "If only I'd listened to him."

"Looks like someone's regretting their life decisions!" Lucy pushed her paw right into the open wound, metaphorically speaking, and made Gherard shudder.

"I regret nothing. This was all… in the name of science and humanity. I did not partake in the experiments that reduced your kind to simple test subjects and beasts, neither did I support the idea that pokémon are mindless creatures. However… I never had a choice."

"You lie." Jake walked up to him again and pointed his claws at his neck. "You seemed well aware of what you were doing, from what Elly told us, and consciously killed pokémon to use as test subjects, and were doing it from your own volition. So don't come to us, pokémon who have suffered and seen what you have done first hand, and ask for our forgiveness, trying to pin the blame on someone else, you spineless worm." His usual deadpan tone had been replaced by a more aggressive one, but even then Gherard kept his cool.

"I'm not asking for forgiveness, if anything, I am explaining the reasons behind my actions. I would be a liar if I didn't admit my acts were fueled by desires of grandeur and greed… but not for money or power, but rather for recognition, something that the Riolu… Eric, right? Something he learned from me rather quickly." The ice type stepped back, and the pokémon listened to that dying man's ramblings.

"The bastard was clever, and he knew he was better than me, that's why he pissed me off so much… I was envious. Envious of a pokémon. Had my colleagues known I probably would've been fired in a heartbeat, but alas I kept my mouth shut. He warned me about the dark matter, and I didn't listen to him, partly because I didn't trust him, but also because he was wrong… The dark matter has properties that not even you know of: the ability to produce massive amounts of energy with any fuel, capable of illuminating an entire city for decades without producing a single drop of waste, terrifying weapon capabilities and so much more… I only wanted to harvest these properties and become someone. In this world, where millions of humans and pokémon go about their daily lives without knowing their place in the world, without a proper goal, and dying without them leaving a mark on history, to be forgotten by time… I was afraid. Afraid that it would happen to me." Jake's eyes went wide open at the mention of all these things as an image of Dusknoir flashed through his eyes.

"And so when my sister joined Team Arena, and I was dragged in as well, I thought I'd found my spot… Team Arena's goal is a noble one… though only for humans, that is. We are the superior race, or at least in this world we are. Pokémon go with the flow, and let life happen to them… humans, on the other hand, are active, they grab the world and shape it, mold it to their wishes and change it in whatever way they see fit. That's why we are hated by all those that aren't us, or hell, even among us: we bring about change, and change is always welcomed with skepticism and fear. I only wanted to bring about yet another change… a change for the better."

"Of course, that doesn't excuse my actions… Money was involved, and my own selfish desires were further warped and twisted because of my sister's interference and sardonic comments. My intentions were less than pure, but everything I did I did for the good of my kind, unlike my colleagues, who did it for money, power or pleasure of inflicting pain of creatures that had either caused them grief in the past or to satisfy their morbid needs. Whatever the case may be, we're all doomed to die here… and I accept that. My vision is starting to fail me, and my insides are burning up… no doubt some of that dark matter got inside of me. I have very little time left… so now it's your turn." With that, he invited the pokémon to insult him, to humiliate him, to let the weight of his actions crush him in his last moments and for sure sentence him to eternal damnation.

"I've been taken away from my family and friends." Dark started all of a sudden, his tone of voice sounding almost growling as he looked at Gherard. "I've seen what you've done to the others here. I've had my own skin cut open. I got fucking mini robots implanted on my muscles. I've been drugged and forced to fight like a beast!" He breathed after finishing. "And that's only what I've been through. I don't want to know what the others had suffered here or for how long." He said and thought for a moment, not wanting to let his emotions loose on the dying human. He had his paws clenched in fists, his lower claws scratching the floor. "Humans are just a race that lives in the world, like any other. They got the ways to shape the land so it meets their needs, true, but in the end is like a fight between two different packs over the same hunting grounds."

"You share the world with other forms of life, many of them sentient, and whilst it is true that you looked towards the good of your kind, as should anyone… You prioritized your needs above others', and in turn nearly annihilated the other side." Elly's words rang true to Gherard.

"Your actions are unforgivable, but having taken in all your reasons, and your spirit and desire for humanity to succeed, they can be **understood**. However, as Elly stated, you should have considered pokémon as well to be part of the world you live in." Jake continued.

"And… why is that? I have explained why we're different… why they're inferior."

"For now. But think in a couple years time, maybe decades or centuries, what if those pokémon start evolving and moving forward with you, and finally decide to take up on your offer to change the world together? With all this chaos and destruction the only thing you humans are promoting is hatred that will last for a long time… And trust me, I know how destructive blind hatred such as that can be." Lucy's words were sincere, though none could read the look in her eyes and interpret her thinking. "Do you really want to be remembered as someone who actually made a good discovery for everyone, or someone who fucked up everything?"

He didn't say much else for a long time, instead coughing up blood as he thought of what he was being told. Each cough brought about less and less blood, and some of it turned darker and darker, eating away at the skin of his hand, letting him know that his time would soon run out. "I've lost the sense of touch… My vision is blurring and my breathing is inconsistent… and yet you're telling me that neither do you condemn me, nor forgive me… Then what awaits for me beyond?"

"Honestly? I don't know… and I don't think anyone here knows Gherard." Elly said the human's name, something that even she didn't think she would do. "But… wherever you go, it'll be what you deserve."

Gherard smiled, slowly moving his hand closer to his chest and moving it inside his coat… then slowly pulled it out to give Elly something she hadn't expected: two necklaces, one with a bright white crystal and another with an onyx black one. Eric and her crystal respectively. She grabbed them and looked at him, shocked. "You're right… and… I'll be happy… with… it…" With those last few words and a long sigh, a crooked smile crossed his face as he whispered a silent 'thank you' with his lips and the blond human, the lead scientist who had inadvertently ruined and ended so many lives for the sake of his people and race, passed on. A heavy silence hung over their faces as the only thing Elly thought to do was to close his eyes, letting his warm body rest there.

"And… that's the end of that." Lucy stated solemnly, breaking the long silence minutes after.

For a moment there was silence in the room, besides the noise that managed to reach their ears, muffled as it was. "We better head out before this place caves in on us." Hadrim said, looking to the ceiling, if only to take his eyes off of the human.

As if on cue, red lights started to come on and off as an alarm blared out of the few speakers that had survived the rampage of the beast freed on that room. "What's going on now!?" Luna asked looking around.

"WARNING. SELF DESTRUCTION PROTOCOL ACTIVATED. EVACUATE FACILITY IMMEDIATELY. THIS IS NO EMERGENCY DRILL. REPEAT. SELF DESTRUCTION PROTOCOL ACTIVATED. EVACUATE FACILITY IMMEDIATELY." A robotic voice talked through the speakers as well, sounding over the alarm.

"I'm starting to think I should shut up!" Hadrim commented shaking his head before heading back the way they came towards the elevator, hoping that they could use it to get out. Unfortunately, the elevator shaft had crumbled down whilst they were talking with Gherard, but the stairwell was intact, and they all quickly rushed up the stairs and to the third level, where the ongoing fights with humans, pokémon and hybrids were still raging on.

"What the!? Haven't they heard the alarms?" Dark asked seeing this, getting ready to defend himself and his friends. "There's no fucking time for this shit!" He mumbled. Before any of the recently arrived could do anything, however. A black mist smashed the humans, pushing them against the wall behind them.

"Yo! Ya like my bones or something? Com'on!" A voice called. The Pokémon that had been fighting didn't waste time and started to retreat as the humans tried to move only to be further crushed by the black mist. As the Pokémon left, they could see a creature completely covered in black, not even the eyes were visible, it had a clawed hand outstretched towards the humans, wings and a long tail. On its other hand it had a scythe that was being held sideways, until a floating flame came in contact with the blade and disappeared into it. Once the group had made it behind it, the creature tore the ceiling with a blow of his weapon to avoid the humans following them. He then looked at the new arrivals. "Can you take the rest out of here?" It said, its voice sounded almost creepy with that ethereal undertone.

"Sure. We'll take over." Hadrim answered first. The creature nodded.

"I gotta attend some friends." It said before disappearing from their sight.

"What the hell was that?" Luna asked, her voice shaky. Silence reigned for a moment.

"I don't know. But this Pokémon seem to trust it so I'll go with that for now." The Espeon sad and started to head behind the escaping Pokémon. The other members of Team Star didn't give it much thought, having seen stranger things before and knowing that some higher power was at play in this situation didn't mitigate their worries. Still, they had to save the innocents and evacuate that lab, which threatened to become a metallic tomb. Elly put on her crystal, stashing Eric's away inside Jake's bag, lest it be lost, and contacted their companions upstairs.

" _Serge, do you read me?!_ "

" _Loud and clear! Even better than before! Did you find the crystals?_ " Serge replied a few seconds after her question, and she could also hear Nox's voice. It looked like the connection had been re-established and everyone in the team could once again communicate freely.

" _Yeah, the human that captured us gave them to me before he died. I… don't know what else to say._ "

" _Right… well, anyways, we just heard some shit about a self destruct protocol? We're dipping outta this hellhole, right?_ " Nox chimed in afterwards. " _Oh, and by the way, you will not believe we just found! Say hi, you lot!_ "

"Can they even hear us?" Radius asked, a little skeptic.

"I think whatever Serge and Nox hear will be heard by the others." Natalie said.

"Dad? Can you hear us?" Shade called, almost breathing on Nox's crystal as she got closer to him. Elly waved at the Espeon and essentially told him to listen in, which he did, and hearing his children his tail gave a twitch as his paws wobbled for a moment.

"I can, my princess." He said out loud, not trusting his mind voice at the moment. "Is mom with you?" He asked.

"Right here." Luca answered. "Have you found Dark and Eric?"

"More like Dark found us first." He joked. "Natalie's with them, and she seems to be ok." He informed the Zoroark, who gave a sigh, feeling a lot of relief.

"Eric isn't here though… they took him to some sort of arena. We'll find him though." Elly sounded determined, but the news discouraged the Pidgeot, who they could hear huff.

" _It's all my fault… I should've…_ " Nobody let him finish however, as he was bombarded by words of reassurement from his friends, which shook him tremendously. " _Thanks… anyways, Will is coming back soon to pick up this batch._ "

"Good, we're sending another group up. Second floor should be clear, so these guys should be the last. Will there be enough space on the boat?"

" _Looking at what the good ol' cap carried away and what we have here, he should. Is there something huge coming up or…_ " They were all suddenly interrupted by another voice, who interrupted the communication and scared everyone in it.

" _Everyone! Listen, something bad is happening_!" They all immediately recognized it: it was Zed.

"Zed, you scared the crap out of us, don't do that! What's wrong, did something happen over in the house? Is everyone alright?!" Lucy was obviously the first to answer, though she was worried about everyone's state, she was more so for the Zorua's. However, his response was shocking to everyone.

" _No! Shut the hell up and listen, you idiots! I saw something on the screen: it's the Pursuer, it's the bastard that tried to kill us! He appeared on the TV and teleported into the island!_ _ **He's in there with you, get the fuck out of there! Get out!**_ " His shouting was bizarre, even more so when one considered that the Zorua usually kept his cool at all times, and he wouldn't be so prone to using bad language… and the insults felt excessive and shocked even Lucy, who was with him most of the time. However, the biggest surprise came in the form of a blood curdling scream that came from down the hallway, followed by a barrage of bullets being fired down the hallway, small bursts of light illuminating the dimly lit hallways as two humans came out, giving them their backs and letting loose down the hallway.

Their weapons were suddenly ripped off by an invisible force and they were both lifted off the ground. "No! No! **Nooooooooooo-** " One of them was pulled away and they all saw blood splatters and bloody chunks hitting the floor around the corner, whilst the other human was thrust further against the opposite wall, three psychic blades nailing them in the neck, chest and forehead, pinning them to the wall. After this, it all fell silent, all the survivors and pokémon looking at the scene before them in a mixture of shock and disgust. Elly was breathing rapidly, knowing what was coming, and yet unaware to tell just how bad it was going to be, her fur matted in sweat, something pressing down on her chest. Soft steps echoed from around the corner, and soon enough a blood stained shape in a black cloak walked into view.

Their eyes crossed, and they all knew who it was, the figure smiling. "Elizabeth… we finally meet…" The cloaked monster said this loud and clear, shocking everyone, but more so Elly, who was about to ask how it knew her full name… before her head started pounding. She started screaming and bent forward, laying her head on the floor as the other shape did the same, though in less pain.

"My head's splitting in two!" She screamed in sheer agony, and a series of familiar images crossed her mind: her parents, both of them standing close to each other in a tender embrace, the setting sun from the beach she'd found Eric, and the inside of Beach Cave… The pain disappeared as quickly as it came, looking up at their foe again. They were also recovering.

"What happened?! Elly!" Jake and Lucy had been asking her what was happening, and her screams could be heard through the psychic link they all shared. She could only hear shouting and questions asking her what was happening, whilst Zed kept shouting that Serge and Nox go down to help her.

"Hadrim… take them all and get out! Now!" Elly was more worried about the others than herself, then turned to face their threat again. Its met her eyes with a smile and a swipe of the hand, metal bending around them.

Hadrim had tried to step in to help, but had been stopped and instead reminded of the other escapees they had to help. With an impotent groan knowing he could have done close to little if he had tried to defend her he turned around. "Dark. Luna. We have to get the rest out of here." He said as he started to walk towards the Pokémon and half transformed humans. The bipedal fox looked back for a moment before turning again and following, the Vulpix already walking besides the Espeon, looking back every now and then. He could see the metal walls bending out of shape and bolts homing it against them from all directions, Elly using her barriers to deflect them safely to cover their escape.

The Espeon called everyone's attention and told them to head down the hallway and meet with the other group and to join that one to escape when they found them. The group of Pokémon didn't waste time on following the instructions and got away. However, they could hear shouts of surprise and saw how the hallway before them was bent out of shape and was crunched by an invisible force, no doubt the Pursuer's psychic powers. He had cut them off from their escape route, trapping them inside that open room. The sirens kept blaring, announcing that only 20 minutes remained.

Above them, the ceiling trembled with the intensity of the fights taking place on the surface, making them wonder if the whole thing was going to come down crashing on them, and with an earth shattering stomp and a mighty roar, one of the lights hanging from the ceiling snapped off its hinges, swinging down, the movement making the wires snap and sparks flying off everywhere. They could all feel the tension in the air, the cold surface underneath their paws burning into the skin underneath the fur, gripping the metal as that clean scent that had once dominated the laboratory was replaced by one of decay and death, no doubt product of the being that stood before them.

And then it started moving.

( **Mephiles - Sonic the Hedgehog** )

With a swift move of its hand and a snap of its cloaked fingers, psychic blades materialized around it, circling around to protect from physical attacks whilst the metal and computers bent out of shape, floating near him and spinning wildly, most likely to be used as projectiles, and finally some of the guns from the dead guards were pulled closer and aimed directly at the six pokémon. They all watched in horror, knowing that this time, it was going to use a different strategy, and it was one that not even Jake had taken into account.

The barrage finished the moment that everything was ready: bullets rained down on them, Elly putting up a wide barrier to block the minuscule bullets whilst her dark craft was busy smacking away the large chunks of metal, which rebound constantly only to crash into her barrier again. "You need to disrupt its concentration!"

Her howls reached the others, with Lucy being the first one to jump to the frontline and quickly slide and twist her tail, the very tip of it peeking out from the barrier. Even that small part was almost grazed by a bullet as a mighty thunderbolt fired off, forcing the creature to lean to the side to avoid being smitten, whilst Jake used his own icicles to try and block the bullets and get closer, but didn't account for the ricoché of the bullets, and fell back immediately as he received a bullet to his left arm. It merely touched him, but was enough to make him fall back and reconsider. "His accuracy is impeccable…. Whoever they are they've been trained by an expert!"

"Like hell it matters right now: how the fuck do we get through to this guy?!"

"I'm too busy with the barriers… Hadrim, any ideas?!"

The named just looked around and thought for a moment. His eyes falling on Lucy and the others. "Lucy. You think you can make it busy attacking?" He asked the Shinx directly.

"You kiddin' me?! Those bullets are way too fast! If you can get rid of the guns, then maybe I can do something!" She screamed and ducked as she heard another bullet flying past the barrier and hitting the wall above her, scaring her.

"Just take any chance you have." He said as he focused on the guns. "Dark. Luna. Assist Lucy however you can. Jake try to pierce the guns with your spikes." He said, his gem glowing at the same time as he reached for the weapons, trying to rip them out of the creature's hold or make them simply aim away and let the others get rid of them. Fried by electricity, stabbed with icicles, whatever it was that rendered them useless to shoot would be enough.

Jake thought about it, realizing that the guns were probably their biggest threat, and the amount of guns scattered around the area, whilst small, would give their foe more than enough time to approach slowly and shred them. It was only they had managed to survive so far thanks to Elly's reflexes, but even she was bound to make a mistake at a certain point. However, Jake soon came up with a plan that involved all of them, and would require extreme coordination.

After a brief explanation, they waited until the Pursuer was using the last two guns present, and was mere inches away from them. Luna took aim breathed in and released a volley of little fireballs over their heads that hit the ceiling, and then came down like a sheet of fire in between the group and their foe. It immediately focused on the fire to blow it away, but they took advantage of the brief distraction and Elly and Dark dashed forward, Elly using her psychic blade to slash the gun in half whilst Dark blew it to kingdom come, nullifying their biggest threat. With the small and almost invisible projectiles gone, Elly re summoned her barriers to grant them a safe spot from the barrage of debris whilst the others started attacking directly, able to dodge the much bigger and predictable chunks of metal.

Luna kept shooting fire at their enemy, breathing flamethrowers towards him and the usual ember now and then, while Hadrim either attacked with psybeams or psychic blasts after dodging the chunks of metal, while also helping Elly with the defenses. The Pursuer's attack strategy changed however, crushing the metal chunks against them and then dashing forward as his blades spun like a buzz saw, then in a display of agility jumped and spun in the air and came down with two blades he had grabbed. It didn't stop there however, as the remaining six blades shot out as he landed, trying to skewer them.

Seeing this change the first reaction Hadrim had was to move away from the close combat, Dark summoned his shadow claws and backed away and Luna surrounded herself with fire and rolled away. Jake leaned back far enough to dodge it, then quickly retaliated with an icicle, which was cut in half by one blade, and Lucy tried to lunge in thanks to a huge black fist, and while the latter didn't impact, the former blitzed past their target and left a scar on its right side, the same place where Serge had wounded it and where Gherard had retaliated during his brief confrontation.

In an attempt to stagger their foe, Hadrim used his psychic once again to try and hit him with a psychic blast, the Espeon was thinking as quickly as he could in this situation. ' _There has to be a way to make this thing go away!_ ' He thought.

On another side, seeing where Lucy had struck, Dark quickly summoned a ghostly sphere of aura that he then sent towards it as fast as he could send it. While Luna once again breathed fire towards it. ' _If Elly and the others are having troubles with this thing being so powerful I think I'll need a bit of extra heat._ ' The Vulpix thought as she spat a blue fireball that floated towards the Pursuer, the fireball divided in various as it drew near it and the smaller group of fireballs that composed the Will'o Wisp attempted to surround their enemy.

The shape, whilst deciding to take up a different strategy, hadn't exactly lost its capabilities, and promptly teleported, though not before Jake quickly lunged at them and slashed a wound across its side. The moment the claws connected, it teleported, and both it and the Sneasel were carried together, the motion of the claws slashing remaining constant during the teleportation. Both the creature and the Sneasel looked at eachother in shock and confusion, though Jake barely had time to react to the sword that almost sliced his head clean off, though was unable to dodge the next one, which left a big cut on his chest and was then kicked away, crashing against the wall and surely breaking some bones.

It all happened so quickly not even Lucy could react in time, screeching the ice type's name and charging straight at the Pursuer, who was recovering from the newly opened wound, only to receive a full on tackle with her top speed, knocking it away whilst she suffered from the recoil. Elly quickly hurried over to Jake to check on the Sneasel, receiving a slight nod and a weak thumbs up, though he didn't look ok. The Pursuer stood back and was met with a massive black fist heading its way, quickly vaulting over it and running across its smooth surface as it transformed into something similar to a Houndour's maw, trying to crush it there, but quickly teleported up the ceiling, slashing through the black shapes as it once again transformed into a wing, only for its own blades to meet with Elly's as the two clashed, staring at the other's eyes and trying to push them away. If either of them succeeded in breaking their concentration, the other would have full control of the body and essentially crush and kill the other.

They tried to make the other look another way, each time they did noticeable bulges and indentations appearing on the ground around them, cracking whatever segments were made out of smooth stone and bending out of shape the metal they saw from the corner of their eyes, locked in a fierce psychic duel that accelerated the rate at the which the room was destroyed.

 **(Stop the music)**

* * *

Hundreds of meters above their heads, Adam and Dante valiantly fought together, the psychic legendary jumping off of his friend's shoulders, having kept his human appearance and raining down a volley of shadow spheres on Darkrai, who was proving to be their mightiest opponent. "This is getting us nowhere!" Dante exclaimed as the dark type legendary evaded them, rushing away. Adam, however, said something that simply, didn't make sense.

"I know! Let's fall back for a bit! In there, c'mon!" Adam suddenly shouted, making the quadruped stare at him oddly, unsure of why he wanted to do that, instead of chasing after their foe. He didn't question it, however, as it played in his favour, and followed his friend down one of the holes that had been opened up during their fighting, though it wasn't any other hole: it was the same opening they'd seen Team Star and the Kaisers use to infiltrate the facility beneath their feet.

They didn't simply stand underneath the broken ceiling of course, and headed out to the hallway, explosions and tremors echoing above their heads, some sections having given in and crumbled down, rocks impeding their progress to the left. The countdown for the imminent explosion had reached 15 minutes, which told Adam he didn't have much time. "Right… I'm gonna go take a look see what's going on in this place. You stay here a-" He was cut off by his friend transforming into his beast form and tackling him to the floor.

"You're not going anywhere… **traitor!** " The reaction shocked the legendary, though he immediately knew what to do and stared into the blue one's eyes again, trying to finish the memory wipe that had missed… but only heard light chuckles coming from him. "Too bad I can manipulate any liquid and ice around me… including in my own body, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to outsmart you." Adam found himself staring not at his eyes, but two mirrors: the bastard had frozen the vitreous humour in his eyes to avoid the effect.

"You son of a bitch… You could've hurt your sight with that!"

"Wouldn't be the first time… But that's not the issue right now: who do you work for?! What is it that you want to accomplish! Tell me or I'll communicate your treachery to Dailos himself!" That last bit of information surprised Adam, and couldn't help but comment on it.

"Wait… you haven't told him yet? Why the f-"

"Just tell me already! Why?!" The tone of his voice betrayed his stern emotions: a soft voice crack indicated that he was extremely stressed out, and it was then when Adam realized that, even if he didn't know it himself, Dante and he chased after the same goals. Dailos' war hurt them all for various reasons: some wanted to eradicate humans, and had some good reasons to do so, others wanted to defend them, and others didn't care for the end of that war: they just wanted to protect those they loved and were their friends and family.

"Alright… I'll tell you… but first, you're gonna have to get off me dude, this is… really awkward. Just imagine what the others would think." He shivered. "Human imagination leads to some really weird shit, lemme tell ya." Dante huffed and got off, regaining his visibility and standing besides his friend. Once the Mewtwo was up, he leaned against the wall. "Well… first of all… I'm doing this for one reason, or rather, one pokémon: Alex."

* * *

Eric waited around the corner to check if the hallway was clear, and once he made sure no guards would stop him, he proceeded further into the arena. Every so often he got glimpses of the stairs that lead up to the stands, and could check his progress to the tower: a few more and he'd be right there. He'd have to find a way up there, but once he did it was over for the bastard.

"You! Stop right there!" A voice sounded and running steps could be heard echoing through the corridors, however there was no one in sight. Until a guard stepped in his line of sight, just to be thrown away by a water attack. Another stepping in and aiming, but before he could even pull the trigger an extremely quick figure got close, unarmed the man and Force palmed the guard away. A Lucario dressed in a dark hoodie and accordion pants and wielding an aura bone, appeared in plain sight of Eric, and just an instant later a Vaporeon was standing by his side.

"Shul. I'm starting to think there's no way down beside the pit." The Vaporeon said.

"We have to keep looking. We either find a way to the holding area or to the stands. I hate this scum. Calling them humans seems like an insult." He spat to the side and let out a growl.

"What you think about… the kids?" The two pokémon quickly began a discussion on this topic, but Eric interrupted them with a warning shot, a tiny sphere blowing up before him to then aim a bigger one at them, summoning his light staff in the other.

"Who the hell are you two?" He clearly wasn't in the mood for games, and wanted a straight answer.

Both Pokémon turned at the blow and got ready to fight. Seeing Eric in his actual state even if they didn't drop their stances, they gave an answer.

"We are here to get the trapped Pokémon out and get rid of the fat bastard that runs this place." The Vaporeon answered, voice firm.

"Wait a second." Shul said. "Aren't you one of the Pokémon that fought on the pit protecting the others?" The Lucario asked, sure that his eyes weren't deceiving him. "You're too malnourished to be one of this fucker's Pokémon. Did you lot break out or something?"

"Break out… Yeah, you could say something like that. You two were fighting against some humans right now… but I don't know if I can completely trust you. Should I let you go, you could warn others and get this arena's owner out of her. And I can't allow that. Someone, somewhere, has to pay for all that's happened."

Shul chuckles a bit and Vaporeon smiles, both relaxing their stances but keeping their guard up, just in case. "What do you think, Hunter?" The Lucario asks.

"I don't think Zax and Yol will be able to take care of that bastard alone. And I'm sure the fat fucker won't be alone." The Vaporeon, Hunter, answered. "Yet we don't know how to get up there." He adds.

"That's true. But our part of the job is to take the trapped Pokémon and slaved experimented humans out of here."

Eric listened to their words closely, visibly relaxing. "What are you two doing here then? Beating up guards and trying to find the escapees? You're late if that's the case, they all broke out already, and are going through the front door."

"It's not easy to find a way underground, this place since it doesn't appear on the blueprints we have. Team Arena should've added it when they took the place." Hunter says.

"So. You all broke out? How?" Shul asked, curious.

"You mean you didn't know that? Some rescue party… One of the hybrids broke us out, and after that we made our way up from the underground. They said something's about to happen to this arena, so I'm rushing to the leader's tower to ensure he doesn't escape." The Riolu replied, working towards them.

"Well an Evil Organization is not going to give away maps of their hideout, are they?" The Lucario crossed his arms as he talked. "And this place is really old so the blueprints we found weren't from these people but the original architects."

"Well. Since they all are breaking out we should look for them and help them. Also warn Ares, Night and Yol." Hunter said. "Where did you got separated?" This time he asked Eric directly.

"Just follow the exit signs. It's not too far away. If you find any of their guards, do me a solid and beat their teeth in, will ya?" He runs past them and resumes his trek back to the tower.

"Heh. Count us in, kid." Hunter said. "By the way. Name's Hunter and that with the cosplay there is Shul." He points at the Lucario.

"This isn't a damned cosplay! I had to get in unnoticed!" The jackal barks, irritated since the Vaporeon had been going on with that joke since the first day. Eric was too far away to comment, approaching the area as he followed the trail of unconscious guards.

After parting ways with the vengeful escapee, Shul projected his aura, looking for his team mates, finding his Gallade friend, Ares, who takes the bait in broadcasting his message about the trapped Pokémon and humans to their party. The order from Zax was clear, cover their escape and if they cross with the Riolu to support him if needed. "Also. Try to tell him to come to the south part of the stands I found a hidden stairway that leads up." The human said, leaving to them the way of communicating with Eric.

Zax had a man by the cannon of his own gun, Yol by his side, growling menacingly, the black Flareon ready to scorch the other human down. The door to the stairway was open and he had no use for this man, who was pleading for his life. Telling that he had wife and children, to which Zax tensed up, but didn't shoot.

"You have? What of those Pokémon? They had families too. Friends. A fucking life! And you just tore them away from it to throw them here to make money, amusement and to feed the convictions for those who think they are nothing but wild animals that humanity can enslave!" He was about to fire the gun after those words.

"I-if you kill me…" He gulped. "W-hat makes y-you any b-better than us?" The soldier asked, voice cracking and scared to his wit's end.

Zax doubted, he held firm but that question held a point he couldn't deny. In the end, the white haired human slammed the weapon hard on the soldier's head, making him fall to the floor. Looking up to the skies for a moment he then walked, Yol following close. "If you want to live, get the hell out of here and try to stay away from anyone you had trapped." He said as he started to go up, weapon in hand.

Unfortunately for him however, he ran straight into Eric as he turned the corner, and received a punch square on the nose, breaking it as blood flew everywhere and fell to the floor unconscious. He walked forward and found himself staring at Zax and his pokémon. "I guess you're the ones knocking out those guards…"

"Possibly. You are the one that wants to make justice?" Yol asked. "Grunts only follow orders, whether they hate Pokémon or are indifferent about them."

"I beg to differ, but no matter the cause, their actions are there. Maybe they did torture pokémon because their superiors told them, but they did it fully knowing of the damage they caused, whether for money or out of fear. And that's inexcusable." He finished his short speech as he reached Zax. "And yes, I want to make justice… where is he?"

"If he hasn't left he should be up here. And knowing these guys there'll be some self destruction mechanism ready to be activated." The human said after showing the unevolved jackal his left ear with a translator.

After this, the three headed upstairs. Only to find the door slamming open and a man with a machine gun stepping out, ready to fire off to them. Yol quickly reacted by shooting a fireball, and Zax started firing himself. The stairway was like a hallway and there was no cover so they had to avoid that man shooting at them.

"Well, like just now we can call all this situation self defense." Yol commented, and having the situation into consideration it kind of was self defense from the Pokémon and Pokémorph side. Eric had backed away and outside of the hallway, hiding around the corner and waiting for a chance to strike. Zax stopped after a moment, needing to save some bullets while Yol kept a stream of flames surging as the two retreated downstairs. Once with some cover, Zax took some kind of tube out of his backpack and separated a ring from it, waited a few seconds and threw it upstairs. As it landed, the tub started releasing a gas, some coughing being heard from above as Zax took out a full face mask for himself and then one for Yol that he secured to the Flareon's head. After that he looked for another one he could have that might fit the Riolu with them and handed it to him. "See if it fits to isolate your face from outside." He said. "If not wait for the gas to clear before you go in." He added as both Human and Pokémon ran upstairs. Shots were heard as well as pained screams from inside the moment they turned the corner. Eric tried to fit the damn thing on, but alas it was useless, slamming it on the ground with a groan of frustration as he simply waited for the fight to end.

Once everything calmed down and the gas was gone, he rushed up the steps and caught up with the group standing before the bodies of the guards. "You… killed them." He commented on this briefly as he went past them, not daring to keep his eyes on them for too long.

"Self defense in this case." Yol said. "They attacked first." He had a little point with that, the Flareon looking sharply forwards, his mask hanging from his neck, while Zax kept his on and this time put the hood on, his head completely out of view as he approached the door and signaled Yol with a gesture of his head. The Flareon lit his whole body on fair before dashing forwards and ramming into it with immense speed and managing to bend the door, breaking the lock and the central hinge.

Silence was everything that came from inside as well as screams of fear and then a man shouting orders that weren't directed to his guards. ' _Does he has hostages in there?_ ' Zax thought as when Yol stepped back he kicked the door with all his strength. The weakened hinges giving up and the door falling. Zax went in and saw his objective. The man was holding a whip, the which looked charged up with electricity, in one hand, while on the other he held an Uzi, and had it aimed at three Pokémorph girls that were dressed in thin lingerie. One of them was a Jolteon boy that Eric might remember from the trip to this place that tried to get into a conversation with him, the other two were a Charmander and a Teddiursa, both girls.

"One step closer and these freaks are dead!" He said. "And don't try to act like you don't care! I've seen your friends helping the other slaves escape from the clients." The Admin added.

He was a fat man, dressed in really expensive clothes, probably specifically made for him, was wearing black elegant pants, a yellow buttoned shirt and a black jacket, as if he was wearing a texudo. The pin with Team Arena's banner was on the neck of the jacket. The man was of pale skin, brown eyes and had almost lost all his hair, the only thing that remained was on the sides and back of it. If any of them had to make a guess his weight was nearing that of a Mega-Abomasnow. Eric was taken aback by the human's physical appearance and hoarse voice… and knew very well that he was staring at the lowest of the lowest in terms of what humanity had to offer.

His anger flared up at the sight and stepped forward, taking the front. "You bastard… so you're the one coordinating all of this madness?! Just an ugly human like yourself?!" This was bar none the most confusing thing for him: normally, an organization like that had a strong, charismatic leader… but this mass of fat was anything but charismatic. He truly pondered if humans were that weak to follow people like these, but at the moment he couldn't delve into those thoughts too much, taking his threats into account, showing that he was very much serious: in one hand, he had the whip, in the other, the gun, which was hoarding everyone's attention.

"He's not the Big Boss. This scum is only the one that put the money for this place to run, that way getting a high rank in the organization. He just controls this Arena." Zax informed Eric, eyes glued to the gun, wishing he had Ares with him at the moment so he could take care of the weapons.

"Throw the gun and get those beasts into their balls!" The fat man called. Zax lowered his gun down to the floor, then returned Yol to his ball, and kicked both things away. All the while keeping a straight face. "The Jackal!" The man said.

Zax shook his head, turning to show he had no more Pokéballs on his belt, before facing the fat man again, hands up.

"Damnit! Paws up, dog! Now!" The man said, swinging his whip in Eric's direction. Gun still aiming to the cowering hostages. Eric really was just torn on what to do: this man was dangerous… he had one last trick up his sleeve, but he needed one opening. His eyes were glued to his body right now, so if he did anything like charge up his next move he would most likely see him and kill one of those poor things before Eric got a chance to retaliate. He just needed a window of opportunity, slowly rising his paws above his head...

Zax was silent and less troubled, tho. After a moment he started counting back from ten in whispers, When he reached three, Yol's ball started to silently roll. And when he reached zero, the Flareon burst out of it, lunging for the fat man's arm with the gun and biting it hard enough to draw blood. The Admin let out a scream of pain and let go of the weapon as he tried to take his arm away from the Flareon's teeth, only further hurting himself. "Hurry! Take the gun!" Zax said to Eric as he rushed to get to the Pokemorphs, while calling for Ares or Shull in his mind so they could get the kids out of that place.

Eric didn't waste any chance, and quickly jumped up and kicked his hand, forcing the gun out of his hand. Yol's eyes shot wide open as he saw this happening. Thanking that aim of the Riolu because just a bit more to the waist and he would've lost his muzzle. With the gun gone, The Flareon let go and jumped away.

The pain that crossed through the man's brains was excruciating. A burning pain that even made tears run out of his eyes. He let go of the whip that Zax picked up as the man wailed like a baby. "Pathetic" Was the only word the masked man said. Even then he waited, and kicked the fat Admin to the floor. "Shuddup!" He yelled, swinging the whip, making it smack and send electric sparks around where it did. The man fell silent after that, and looked at Zax's masked face. "You are going to answer some questions now!" He said. "I know you are one of the higher ups, one that had seen and been in contact with your Big Boss. Who is he? **Where is he**?" The human asked, a tone of rage surging in his voice as he talked about the man he was asking the questions about.

The Admin just kept silent, whether out of pain or to keep it a secret only he knew. However, Zax didn't hesitate, walked back a few steps and whipped the bastard ten times. Before asking again. Again silence, and this time it was fifteen whips.

Zax kept with the torture, whipping and simultaneously shocking the admin. Each time with even more rage. Yol was looking not only at the Admin but also at his human. He knew that tone of voice and why he was getting angry and desperate for answers that he wasn't getting out of one of those that knew.

"You…" Finally the Admin spoke. Taking his good hand away from the severed one and moving it.

"Stay still!" Zax yelled and Yol stood, ready to attack again.

"You… won't get any answers from me!" the Admin said and pulled out some kind of remote controller, ready to push the button on it. Zax stopped immediately upon seeing the remote, taking a wild guess at what it was. "Yeah, yeah you little fuckers… you know what this is! This is to blow up this entire place to smithereens! And I'm going to press it, and bury all of this under a pile of rubble!" He was about to press the button…

When a beam of light pierced right through his arm, severing his hand at the remote, through the ground and through the wall and into the empty arena outside. The searing pain that traveled from the admin's brain was excruciating, screaming even louder than before, tears flowing from his eyes as he swore loudly, looking for the culprit. His eyes locked with Eric's, and he knew he'd found who he was looking for.

"You… you mother f-"

"How does it feel? What you're experiencing is just a fraction of the pain your kind has inflicted on all pokémon… you've killed hundreds, ruined thousands of lives… How many?! How many innocents did you exchange for riches?!" Eric stepped forward and grabbed that guy by the neck of his shirt, bringing him closer. "I don't expect you to answer… it won't change a thing… I've been stuck inside these labs and arenas for about a week, and have seen enough shit. You bastards are always getting away with this with no repercussions… and it's time you paid up!" And with that, he reared his fist back and buried it into the arena leader's face.

His face contorted and bent as he received the fist once, then twice, again and again. "Graagh!" Eric howled out and threw him up against the ceiling with all his strength, and once he was underneath… he started punching the limp overweight human in the air, keeping him above him with the amount of blows and their strength, each fist burying itself deeper into his stomach, through the fat and battering his insides, before he delivered one final uppercut flipping him upside down… and finished with a kick to the back of his head. The blow made the fat human shoot forward like a cannonball, straight through the bulletproof glass and down to the arena below. As everything settled in the room, Eric looked outside and down at the human, lying in a puddle of his blood and coughing and crying profusely. It was over.

Outside, the rain was now a downpour that would rival one depicted in a religious fable and probably Primal Kyogre's Primordial Sea as well; and a mighty, monstrous roar reached their ears, making the place tremble.

"That's a warning." Yol said out loud hearing the roar. "A warning for us! We have to get out of here!" He said. "Zax, let's go!" He called to his human, who looked at him for a moment and then at the Admin.

"Damn it all!" He cursed and turned, starting to run.

"You too! let's go!" He barked and turned to leave the place. Suddenly, the massive head of a creature smashed through the walls of the arena, destroying the stands.

Yol stood in place, ears going down as well as his tail, afraid seeing a creature he thought was a forgotten pirate legend that nowadays was only used on pirate fantasy movies or books. A giant sea monster able to break in half a galleon with a swing of its head. When the creature withdrew from the arena, its body was clear to whomever looked at it. A serpentine body with big fins positioned along the body, which was covered in thick, plate looking, blue scales that had the colour of the sea and degraded to pure white on the lower side. They couldn't look much more as it immediately spat a stream of water with enough pressure to tear the battle area.

However, Eric could notice that the sea dragon was purposely avoiding attacking directly the place they were in, as it was destroying the rest of the building. Unfortunately, at one point the high pressured stream activated the detonator of one the bombs that were part of the self destruction mechanism, making it blow up and thus activating a chain reaction that set of the rest of the bombs of the place. Yol reacted on instinct this time, called for Eric again and then ran off without waiting. Meanwhile, the creature kept destroying the place, stopping with the stream of water and going directly to attack the building with its body.

Eric turned around after he understood that the monstrosity destroying the Arena was none other than the "friend" the Vulpix hybrid had referred to… but unfortunately its actions only caused for the bombs to blow up prematurely. As it crushed the stands, one of the charges went off underneath it, which only staggered the creature momentarily, but made the nearby ones blow up as well. Eric barely saw it out the corner of his eye and instinctively covered his face and upper chest with his arms. It was to no avail however, as the fragments of rock and wood flew at him like shrapnel from a grenade, piercing through his arms and body, a long wooden piece that had once belonged to the supporting frames lodging itself in his side, earning a muffled yelp of pain as he was thrust out of the tower and thrown down to the pit, splashing on the shallow water there and rolling for a few feet before coming to a stop, unconscious.

It would take him minutes to regain his senses, and by then he could feel the water level threatening to reach his muzzle… he feared this could be the end and struggled to get up, hearing the water rushing around him… and could only take a few steps forward before collapsing once more. The creature then located him and lowered its head into the pit. Eyes locked on the Riolu until its vision was cut by its own size. Even then, it stopped near the Riolu and let out sounds like a wale's song. The sea dragon had stopped its attack, the Arena was sinking into the seas at the will of the creature. The waters swallowing it and whomever remained inside. Such was the wrath of the seas, usually calm, but really destructive when furious.

After waiting for a bit for the little jackal, the creature opened its maw and stuck out its forked tongue to fish Eric and suck him into its mouth. Where the creature held him as it retreated from the arena, allowing a massive wave to crash on it and making it sink faster with that little part of the island.

* * *

Metal lashed out and threatened to take Elly's head clean off, but she back flipped quickly enough and brought down her own black blade, which crushed the metal under the Pursuer and forced to jump backwards. The black mass changed form again and chased after it as tendrils, but it simply slashed all of them as it fell backwards and landed on its feet, panting heavily. Elly was tired as well, whilst Lucy had taken care of the wounded Jake and carried him away from the battle.

"I can hear his pulse… Hadrim can you check if he's got anything broken?" The Shinx sounded legitimately concerned. Even if she didn't get along with the Sneasel at all times, she wasn't about to let him die either. It didn't take a Nurse Joy to see some major things on the Sneasel, for once, one his right arm was in a really uncomfortable position, probably dislocated, and by how he breathed the Espeon thought he might have some broken ribs.

"I can fix his arm but broken ribs are out of my reach. Even if it was dawn time I doubt Morning Sun would do much more as Shade's Wishes with broken bones." He informed her. "This needs professional help." He dared to say, knowing they don't like medicine like it goes around here.

Luna had retreated from the fight with them, the Vulpix panting hard, yet looking excited and thrilled. She had asked Dark to shower her with his Flamethrower a few times while they were fighting, the Zoroark had given into her request, as he had put two and two together and guessed her ability. The same dark Fox was tired as well. He had helped as much as he could, pulling out not only his ranged moves, which was already scarce with Aura sphere, Shadow ball, Dark pulse and little more; but he had also pulled out strong combinations as well that had at least done **a little bit** to help. Even then, he wasn't at ease. He knew Elly could resist with this creature, but that if she was in top shape, which wasn't the case for one, she was still wounded so moving like she did would put her in a world of pain. And the other reason he wasn't happy with this situation was the same that had assaulted him last time, he could do almost nothing to help.

A cracking noise could be heard as Hadrim used his psychic powers to put Jake's arm back in place at the same time he and Lucy held the Ice type in place. He didn't even do so much as groan, and once it was in place he tried to move… but the pain in his side was too much to bear, even for him, and his arm was essentially useless for the time being. Thankfully, it wasn't like they were the only ones in the facility. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a red glow coming from the metal that had blocked the path out… and suddenly a torrent of flames burst through, followed by a swooping Pidgeot, who used the new opening to lash out directly against the Pursuer at the other side of the room. Their blades and eyes met once more, and Elly followed with a fist, hitting their foe away, though unable to knock them down.

"Give 'im the business, Serge!" Nox shouted as he came through, about ready to charge into battle, but stopped as he realized Lucy and Jake were there. "Oh shit, you guys alright?"

"What took you long?! It's been five minutes, that goddamn voice won't shut up about it, we're running out of time!"

"I know I know! The good captain had to take away the rest of the pokémon and said he'd be back for us! He's probably there by now, so we've gotta move it! Get him on my back, come on!" Whilst they had this conversation, Hadrim could see more Pokémon rushing into the room. Seeing the rest of his family, Hadrim rushed to them and immediately hugged and nuzzled, Radius, Shade and Natalie.

"Glad to see you are all ok." He said.

"Just a bit tired and sore, but yeah, mostly fine." Rad chuckled nervously, his eyes darting towards Dark, who was looking down the hallway for the moment. Until Natalie called him and he looked at her. Faster than any Pokémon using Extreme speed, he was hugging her with both arms, taking her from the floor as he did so and telling how worried he had been, even after they were told that they were fine.

"Believe me I hate to break this moment of reunion but we have to massive inconvenience right now." Dust said to them all. He was happy as well and so was smiling but for the moment he had decided to keep his focus on the situation at hand.

"NINE MINUTES REMAINING FOR SELF DESTRUCTION." The voice beamed again through the speaker, reminding them once again of one of their highest problems.

"That shit's annoying." The golden jackal said.

"At least we know how much time we have." Radius countered as he got ready for whatever was to come.

"Serge. Nox. Help Elly with that thing." Hadrim called to the other members of Team Star. "Lucy, watch over Jake. The rest support from afar." The Espeon dictated at the moment, going into a mood that was rarely seen on him. Luca and Dust summoned aura spheres of their own and send them against their foe. Dark started preparing another difficult combination of moves, being the second time it took him a bit, but less than the first before he fired it off towards their enemy. Luna looked at the battle and starting firing Embers at him as well. Everyone aiming carefully as to avoid hitting Elly, Serge or Nox. While Hadrim concentrated on defending them all from his position with Jake and Lucy.

At this point, the Pursuer was recognizing some of the faces among them, and found that while it was outnumbered…it wouldn't have an issue dispatching all those fools with ease… but before it could charge into battle, a blast of ice soared through the hole and headed directly at it. The creature took a step back and blasted the projectile with a psychic impulse, but to its dismay it wasn't the only thing there: Adam, the Mewtwo, was right behind it, coated in a thin layer of ice that he shed as he struck with a shadow claw, drawing blood from its chest as it tore some of the cloak off. They couldn't see anything but pitch black underneath it, however, so it was useless.

Adam's intervention though, was quite shocking to everyone, though most of all Elly, who could not believe what she was seeing. "Y-You?!"

The Mewtwo turned to face her and waved with a cocky smile. "Heya! Long time no see! Looks like you guys had a run in with that trash can over there!"

He wasn't the only one, as someone else came into the battle. And to say that everyone's face was the image definition of surprise would be an understatement as Dante stepped forwards to stand by Adam. "You lot, get the hell outta here before this place blows up!" He said to everyone.

No one was able to say anything at all, shocked into silence and paralysis as they where getting help from two they'd never expected to in the first place. "God damn it, and let you guys get beat up by this thing? Its clearly outmatched, so let's finish it right here, right now!" Nox spoke up suddenly, voicing most of everyone's thoughts.

"9 minutes is more than enough… Besides, I still gotta pay back this son of a bitch for that month without flying…" Serge followed up, and also stepped up. Although she didn't say anything, Elly took a step forward, agreeing that this monster had to be stopped, and a chance such as this wouldn't present itself later. Slowly but surely, all those that could fight took a step forward and joined the legendaries, which their foe didn't like whatsoever. It backed up at the idea of fighting all of them at once, and decided it wasn't in its best interest. It reached to grab the fabric of space, and jumped backwards, slipping through the folds and opening a gate to another place...

That action didn't go unnoticed, as a roar came out of the tear in space and the thing was pushed back through the same hole and back into the room. A moment after, the tear was more smoothly open to allow Lisa to cross it and then it was closed entirely. The Palkia looking down at the creature that had been tearing the fabric of space all over. "You! You're the damn foul that's been turning the fabric of space into a swiss cheese!" She growled, her arms glowing as she attempted to slash out at it, furious because of the danger a creature that to her looked human, had put this world through, and she suspected this was also the one that had triggered the Space Synchronization between two planets that she had seen for herself in the Space Plane.

The creature let out a roar of anger and cartwheeled away, now finding itself pinned between the legendaries, the Kaisers and Team Star… This wasn't good. The Kaiser Pokémon were even more bewildered for this sudden turn of events. But one by one they started to react and joined into the fight again, once more, Hadrim taking care of defending the wounded while the others looked for ways to harm their foe. Dark used his combined moves to send stronger attacks towards it, also empowering Luna's fire by bathing her on his Flamethrower whenever she called him to while she kept spouting fireballs at it. Luca and Dust kept on with their Aura spheres themselves, Luca creating shards of ice that she shot at it with the help of her aura by punching the air every now and then. Dust sometimes used the water Dante created with Hydro pumps Water pulse or even Surf directed at it to try and get the creature off guard somehow. Hadrim sent Psybeams every now and then and even used some debris on the floor to attack it. All the while, Lisa concentrated on quickly closing any tear the creature might create, she wasn't letting it escape like that.

It didn't move anywhere, and instead roared in anger as a massive psychic blast swept its surroundings, blasting anyone and anything nearby… It clearly couldn't fight against this many pokémon… it was stuck there. The only way to escape was to kill Lisa, and make a run for it. The swords reappeared around it, and dashed towards Lisa, unable to teleport. whilst metal pieces and bolts were thrown towards the other pokémon. Serge flew between them and charged against their foe, but didn't get close enough to strike, as he was sent flying backwards by a psychic wave.

The power behind that was enough to shake the place and Lisa saw it as she staggered. The Palkia saw that this foe was much more powerful than she had anticipated, a quick look around told her that there were wounded, and even starved and tired Pokémon there. She thought quickly and her pearls shone brightly in an instant. A moment before, one by one, Team Star and the Kaiser Pokémon started to disappear from that room as she teleported them to the first safe place she could think of. Team Star tried to fight, even if they were taken away, and they pleaded for Lisa to stop… but the last one to leave was Elly, who shot the legendaries a look of concern.

"What the- Lisa, why'd you do that?!" Adam was confused, and the creature growled in anger, keeping its eyes on the Palkia. She didn't respond immediately, but they could tell she was preparing something.

"Adam, we must defend her at all costs! Quickly!" The Suicune caught on quickly as was between their friend and the attack in the blink of an eye, and Adam soon followed, both friends standing side by side to defend her.

" **FOUR MINUTES REMAIN. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.** "

( **Find You - Anarchy Reigns** )

It roared out and charged towards the duo, the ring of psychic blades crashing against a wall of ice from Dante whilst the Pursuer's blades met their match against Adam's. The ice that blocked and destroyed the blades fragmented and shifted into chunks of ice that crashed into the cloaked creature's chest, making a walkway for Adam to run up and catch up to it, the two slashing and fighting in the air. The Pursuer stuck to the ceiling as it altered its own gravity, whilst Adam kept moving, their eyes meeting as they struggled in midair, the Mewtwo falling down to the ground and sliding slightly above the ground, standing up and rushing forward again.

Dante jumped towards the ice and climbed on top of it, the structure crumbling underneath his paws as it circled around his neck, becoming a chain which he used to lash out at the Pursuer. It wrapped around its arm and pulled it down from the ground and disarming one of its hands, altering its gravity to stand on the floor, but quickly shifted the chain's too, making it lighter and pulling Dante towards it, slashing one of his front legs. It wasn't cut off completely as his blood froze and stopped the blade from going further in, but it was hurt badly and was unable to land cleanly on the floor.

He rolled across it, Adam jumping over his friend as the ice chain followed the Suicune, vaulting over it and spinning, throwing one of his swords, which was deflected by the Pursuer's remaining blade. They both held their remaining blades with both hands and clashed together, struggling against the other's ethereal weapon. Whilst they pushed against the other, the chain around Adam's neck changed, each link becoming a sharp snowflake, which shot forward as deadly homing projectiles. Some scratched the Pursuer's cloak, revealing more blood underneath it, and forced it to back off as Adam kept up his attack, striking harder and harder with each swing, roaring whenever their swords clashed.

As they fought on, Lisa's powers lashed out, energy coming off from her body and striking the walls around them. Her eyes snapped open and she swung at the air, opening a massive tear in the fabric of space as her plan was realized…

And the vacuum of space was revealed outside, the surface of the planet visible through the tear.

There was a single moment of peace before the difference in pressure took effect and begun sucking everything out of the room. Lisa used her powers to prevent herself from being sucked, but Adam and Dante weren't so lucky, being lifted off the ground for a few brief seconds each. Dante was the first to react and quickly shot a blast of ice at the ground underneath him. A large chunk of ice manifested itself, but the motion made his calculations go awry, and it was his wounded leg that was caught in the ice, hanging off to certain death by a broken leg.

Adam wasn't able to hold onto anything and found himself being pulled away from the ground and backwards at a fast pace… but was miraculously saved by Lisa's claw, who grabbed him and quickly pulled him closer to her so that the only one to be blown out into space was the Pursuer. It tried to teleport, but she denied its power with ease and saw how it tumbled and fell backwards towards the hole… and grabbed on to the seams of the tiles on the ground. The suction was so intense they were being pulled off the ground… but the Pursuer wasn't.

Instead, they all saw that, while its cloak was violently flapping and trying to get to space, it stood up perfectly, crouched down… and began stepping towards Lisa again, fighting against the vacuum of space. They knew what he was doing immediately: altering his own gravity to fight against the suction power, even if it was causing massive damage to his body underneath that cloak. She had to remain still in order to keep the rift and herself from being sucked away… so the idea that this creature was trying to teleport the entire time, manipulate its gravity, attack and move at the same time… was equal parts terrifying and shocking to her.

" **Lisa, he's getting closer! Do something!** " Adam's voice was barely audible over the sound of the air being sucked out, reminiscent to that of an explosion. Dante looked back at the scene and stared in horror as both Lisa and his friend were inches away from the Pursuer, who had summoned yet another psychic blade to finish the job. He tried to attack with this ice projectiles, but they were all sucked away or too small to hit their mark… and was too tired to create a bigger body of ice that would surely hit him and push him into the hole.

But that didn't mean he didn't already have one.

( **Stop the music** )

What happened next was forever engraved into Adam's mind: just as the cloaked creature rose its blade to execute both he and Lisa, he saw a faint wicked smile drawn across its face… which vanished in an instant, alongside the monster. As he had been looking up, he didn't realize what had just happened, but only saw how the creature was hit into the hole. He heard a scream above him: Lisa was shouting, screeching and wailing a name. He only got to see Dante's purple hairs as his body disappeared through the hole again.

" **Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!** "

Even though his shout was audible even with the tear in space, the booming robotic voice that announced that there was only one minute remaining, and on going fights above their heads… Dante heard nothing after he was thrown out into space. For a second there was a slight moment of respite, unable to hear anything but his own hastened heartbeat, his body spinning in circles and making him dizzy… But this was ok with him. He had intentionally unfrozen the ice that kept him chained to the ground and used his body to push the creature out… but there was a reason he'd done it: he knew that Lisa could teleport and nullify the Pursuer's attempts to teleport, and so she only had to come get him back… and that monster would stay out there to die.

He looked around, but try as he might he couldn't see it. It didn't matter however, as there was no way for it to return or control itself in the vastness of space, though what caught his attention was the burning pain coming from his front right paw, half of which was missing, having been torn off violently when he was pulled away. It was a necessary sacrifice however, and merely waited for Lisa to appear… and she did, a tear opening in front of him and spotting Lisa coming through. They were no longer in the labs, but rather somewhere else he couldn't identify, and as she reached out to grab him, he too tried to grab her…

But stopped as he felt a searing pain go through his chest, a chunk metal flying past him. For a second, he thought he'd been stabbed by a loose bolt… but when he looked down he saw what he feared most: a psychic blade. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was that had stabbed him from the back, but saw how Lisa's face turned from one of relief to sheer terror. And in that instant, that single moment of doubt, of whether she wanted to remain there and help the dying Dante, or chase after the Pursuer. The moment her emotions got the best of her… was when the Pursuer vanished into thin air. She felt the fabric going back to its normal state after it disappeared, and knew that it was long gone… but not before it left a cruel parting gift.

She turned to face Dante… only to see him hundreds of meters away from the rift, moving at high speeds… confused, at first, and thinking her eyes were tricking her, her fears were confirmed once she saw that the psychic blade was still embedded in the Suicune's chest, pulling him farther and farther away, and she saw tiny drops of blood floating in the air, making a bloody trail into the infinite darkness of the cosmos. She tried to scream, but not even she could be heard, and tried to reach Dante's mind, to try and contact him through telepathy… but couldn't find anything. Dante had blacked out from oxygen deprivation seconds after the fatal stab.

Dante's lifeless body peacefully floated further and further away into the darkness beyond, a smile of contempt on his muzzle. His last thoughts were of his friends, his only family… and a wish for Adam to finish what they had started.

* * *

 **Ray: Well. This finishes this chapter and I gotta say: what an ending! Pursuer back to its shit and crashing everyone's hopes of survival -shudders- Well, with this the arc is done. But we would like you to stay tuned for a little bit longer, right bro?**

 **Eric: Yep. So, let's get right into it: as we mentioned last chapter, this would be the final chapter of the fic, followed by an Epilogue that would close off everything and lead into our next fics. The reason why we have decided to cut it off like this is… well, mainly what this story has turned into. For myself, this was supposed to be since the very beginning a fun, one off, side story for just fun moments. However, I saw potential that it could help me fill in the blanks between the first story and the next one I'm working on… and so I myself decided to add some elements that were important. As for Ray…**

 **Ray: For me this was literally part of the main fic and would have helped a lot in making my characters stronger. Sadly this dragged on and on and on and has taken too long to be done. We even had to make some sacrifices on this Cross-over, or Co-work, or it would've have become a four year writing progress, exaggerating a bit… or not. The thing is that while it would advance my main story a bit, it would've have kept other projects on hold for far too long.**

 **Eric: Yep… so we decided to end it like this. This arc fit perfectly as an ending to the fic because of how intense it was, so we thought of it as a good enough ending.**

 **Ray: Also all of you that had gotten to like my part on this… I'm just telling that even if I'm getting a break for a bit from this story in general, I will not leave it unfinished. But before that I gotta arrange some things in my own profile of this site before I can continue it. And I won't do anymore spam here because it's rude! See ya all on the final entry of this journey! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!**


	24. Epilogue - The Choice

**Epilogue**

 **The Choice**

"Wake up dammit!" Shade barked at Dark while pushing him a bit, until she ended by harshly hitting him, getting a groan out of the bipedal fox, who was just waking up.

"What was that for!?" He asked, frustrated.

"You wouldn't wake up and had everyone scared." She said to him. He looked around, and there was only her on the.

"What the fuck!?" He let out as he saw himself, and Shade, floating around on top of a rock hovering over what looked like some kind of grey beach beneath. "So… Everyone's worried?" He asked her raising a brow, getting a pout from the Shiny Eevee and no words.

A scream reached them then, coming from another floating rock. They looked up to see Luna on a rock as well as them, calling them from up there. "Ooooi! You two ok?" She howled. Dark waved at her with an arm and told her they were just fine.

Higher above they could hear another voice calling them. Once they looked up they saw Serge, who was waving at them from one of the higher rocks, and higher still they could see Elly and Lucy on another rock, leaving them to guess that Jake and Nox were with the flying type. "You guys ok down there?!"

"All fine down here!" Luna howled again as she turned, Radius and Dust were sleeping still, the Riolu over the Jolteon, and for a moment she considered burning some ass, but refrained. Little by little, the rocks floated closer and closer to the grey sand and water beach, but not before they saw an Aura sphere flying off from another floating rock a bit further away from theirs, the light and explosion getting their attention. Even with the distance, they could see Luca with an Espeon on one of her arms, waving at them. Wether it was Natalie or Hadrim it was to guess for now. Until his voice entered their heads.

" _Is everyone alright?_ " The male Espeon broadcasted his question to everyone in his reach and got the same responses from each of them, Luna adding that she was with the two Kaiser young males, who were still sleeping. Everyone else in Team Star sounded off after them, making it so everyone was present and conscious.

" _Glad to hear. I woke up at the beach right under you._ " He called. Some of the Kaiser looked over the ledge of their rocks to see the Espeon looking up from the sand at them all. " _The rocks seem to be floating towards the beach as well. Jump down when you get the chance._ " He added.

The members of Team Star agreed and sat down, relaxing. They were confused as to what had happened and where they were… these rocks had been falling for a long time, but they hadn't been aware that the Kaisers were below them. "So… any ideas of where we are?" Nox

"This air… the sky…" Elly looked up and gasped, catching the attention of her friend, who did just the same.

"What the heck?!" Her exclamation motioned for her friends to look up as well, and once they did they found themselves staring at what seemed to be a fractured planet. It remained in place, a cold blue star in its center which radiated gentle light down upon that bizarre world, the sky a deep purple as large rocks fell down from the infinite void above them. Even Jake was unsure of whether those rocks came from the destroyed astral body or fell down from the heavens. Whatever the case, below them was even more bizarre: they were heading towards a vast beach that spanned most of what could be interpreted as a gray deserted island. They could see a spring in the middle of it, but not much else asides from a few trees. Everything was a clear gray sea that reached as far as the eye could see. To the west, a black twisting void awaited, and to the right, a bright star glowed.

"This looks just like the Distortion World!" Jake pointed out, cementing everyone's thoughts, now confused as to why they were back in such a place. A moment later, two screams were heard and a Vulpix laughing as Dust and Radius woke up abruptly, protesting to their father for his 'nightmare joke' to get them awake again.

" _So everyone accounted for, right?_ " Hadrim asked again, and got a series of confirmations, except for Natalie, whom Luca said was still sleeping and that she'll take care of waking her up.

Slowly but surely, the rocks approached the beach, and once they were close enough, each of them jumped down from their rocks before they sunk into the depths of the water, slowly dragging their way down below the surface and into the abyss below, until they disappeared from sight, leaving them stranded on that strange island.

Hadrim looked around when everyone was there, there was nothing but gray sand to both sides. "Get away from the water." He said. "If this is the place I think it is we should avoid the water completely." He said. The book about the legendary Pokémon held information on where did each of them live, except for vague explanations taken out from legends and put together to form the most accurate possible description of Distortion World, and if they were in that place, then what they had in front of them was the Sea of Souls.

"My. My. What a smart little psychic type has been teleported into my realm." A feminine voice sounded around them, the words followed by a chuckle, and Hadrim's own shadow rose in front of him, red eyes glowing as it looked at the Espeon, startling everyone around as a small version of the Lady of the Underworld appeared in front of him, a really small version of herself, that only reached the psychic type's size. "What do I owe the pleasure of having more living guests at my home?" She asked as she started floating around.

"More?" Luca asked, sounding aggravated and getting in between the Giratina and her mate. "What do you mean more?"

"Oh no need to get your fur all bristled sweety. I'm not about to steal your handsome smarty." She playfully said and giggled again as she started hovering above them. "And I meant that a wounded Riolu had been brought to me not long ago." She explained as she giggled a bit. Elly's eyes lit up at the mention of a wounded Riolu, but as she opened her mouth the legendary interrupted her. "You know? It's strange for living ones to come here. After all this is the land where the recently deceased are judged and their destiny is sealed. Hell, Heavens, or Reincarnation." She said and with the three possible destinies she pointed around with her tendril-like wings, first at the black hole and then at the burning star, the last word was accompanied by a shrug of her wings.

"Right… well, we're going neither way… except back home. You mentioned a wounded Riolu though? Does he have some white markings on his right hand?" Her tail wagged from side to side, clearly desperate the Giratina's response, whilst the other members of Team Star had different reactions, some skeptical even.

"Hmm… Such peculiarities can go unnoticed." She said. "In other words, I'm not entirely sure. I do know though it was a male by the scent, delicious male scent if I might add, and seemed to have come out of a battle near, on or in water. Oh! Also that a Yorlin brought him here… Or should I say an Avatar? After all there's only one alive and…" And she got lost in her tracks for a moment there, so much time alone tends to break the barrier between talking to yourself in your mind and doing so outside. When she noticed that she had gotten out of track she stopped and blushed a bit, laughing sheepishly. "Woops. Sorry for that." She said. "I see some of you are also wounded. Why don't you come with me, you visit this Riolu to see if he's the one you're looking for, and I try to heal those wounds?" She offered. "It would be but a short way ahead, to that spring over there." Saying this she waited for an answer.

Everyone looked at her weird, unsure of why she was rambling on and on so much… but Elly decided it was worth checking out, and took up her offer, ignoring the "delicious" comment for their own good. With her response, the Giratina gave a flip and asked them to follow her with a smile.

"The Name's Narla by the way." She introduced herself as she floated.

"Narla the Giratina… I remember reading about you in those books… the guardian of the gates of hell and heaven."

"Hmm she's a tad smaller than what I thought." Luna commented to Shade, who nodded.

"Oh dear. I can grow as much as I want, but I'm not trying to threaten you since you're visitors." The Lady of the Underworld said as Luna's shadow rose up to talk to her, making the Vulpix bark in fright and jump back, and the legendary laughed a bit and the shadow went back to its usual place.

"Nice prank." Dust said, getting a smile from her, and a burning ass from Luna. "Yeowch!" He protested for that and the Vulpix just walked past him, giving him a look that made him shut up.

Surprisingly, it didn't take much for them to reach the springs. They seemed to be further away that what it seemed. "Contrary to the sea we just left behind, these springs are not made of lost mournful souls but some holy water, as cliche as it sounds. Get into them for a bit and you'll be as good as a newborn in a few minutes. Don't drink it though unless ya wanna be a toddler." She made a joke in the end.

"You are really alone here, are you not, miss?" Dark asked, having her on his face all of a sudden with a serious look for a moment that made him back away, before she smiled.

"Maybe I am. Do you know? I sure know but I'm not gonna say it." She said and went back to hovering and guide them.

"Way to go, Trickstar." Radius said with a chuckle. Dark groaning at him.

"Drop that damned nickname, please!" The Zoroark begged, the Jolteon just laughed harder.

The Team Star members came up to the spring and looked around… it only took a few seconds for Elly to find the Riolu lying on the shore of the lake with half of his body underneath the water. And of course, her eyes recognized the markings on his right hand immediately too.

" **Eric!** " She quickly rushed over to him as she screamed this, and once everyone was certain that was him, they too joined in, Nox shouting and notifying everyone that the Riolu was, in fact, Eric himself. How he'd gotten there was a mystery to them… but they couldn't be any happier, with Elly quickly sliding over to him and shaking his head, checking for a pulse and trying to wake him up, calling his name. The Kaiser too rushed to the Riolu, leaving them their space while watching to see if he reacted. For once Narla didn't say anything and instead let them have their reunion, having what looked to be a smile on her face as she looked.

Eric didn't wake up at the first shake, but finally his eyelids fluttered open and looked around, shaking off his exhaustion as he felt somewhat revitalized, recognizing the Eevee above her. "Elly!" His first reaction was to hug her, even if his body complained as he did so, wrapping his arms around her body and neck and pulling her closer, almost making the two fall into the water. This earned a few chuckles of relief from his friends, who pulled him out and helped him sit up. Even if most of his wounds were perfectly healed, he was still very much tired. "How did you… get here?"

He was given a quick summary of what had happened at the lab, nodding with every important element of the story and growing somber at the mention of the Rebscura, the Pursuer and Gherard's death, with the last one making his head drop. "Well… I guess he got what he deserved in the end. And you were taken away just like that, in the middle of the battle?" He was responded by a simultaneous nod. "And what happened to those two?"

Before anyone could even shrug, Lisa appeared in the sky and looked around. Narla felt her presence and looked up to see her "Oh. Lisa, dear! Down here!" The Giratina called. The Palkia looked down and then descended until she landed.

"I'm glad to see you are all ok." She said to them with a sigh of relief. The only good news she had had all day. "I'm guessing you want an explanation?" She asked, getting nods from practically everyone.

As if on cue, Thunder rumbled above them before lightning struck down near the area, the old Raikou, Ren was looking at Lisa, drying tears under her old, pained eyes.

"I want to hear it too from you." The old voice sounded broken, and almost made Luca and some others cry as well.

"Well. I had an idea but had to take you away from the battle." She then explained what had she done with the Pursuer, and how had Dante ended after her plan. Her retelling of the events shook all of them, with the members of Team Star looking away as a sign of respect for the fallen legendary.

"You think Kol will reach him?" Narla asked, and Palkia simply shrugged.

"I hope so. Wouldn't want to put that weigh on another Pokémon."

"I can't believe that my little one is no more… for naught." She said, her head hanging low and eyes closed. "I would cry him either way if his sacrifice would have yielded something, but…" She couldn't finish, it was too painful for her. She just sat down, trying to cope with it.

"Don't tell me he-" Elly was silenced by a motion from Eric, who rose his paw and tried to stand up, a look of serenity of his face.

"These are… grave news. We feel sorry for your loss, Ren… That creature can't be allowed to roam this world… any longer." He struggled to even utter the words

"Sweet words, Riolu. And I appreciate them. But since this fiend seems to follow your tails I would like to ask a favour of you." She said, and they could easily guess what she wanted. "I would normally not be so impulsive, even last time… Please, return to that thing every damn thing and wound he caused to my son." She asked them, looking directly at Eric in the eyes. She meant it, she wanted it to suffer every single blow it had inflicted.

Eric nodded, accepting her request, making it personal. "And what about the other one? The Mewtwo?"

"He returned to Limbo after he heard the news of Dante's death. He looked… really affected, and I'm concerned for his own well being. Who knows if they will even mourn for their fallen comrade… but I know we will." Lisa concluded, sad that she didn't manage his life. "But that is besides the point… you are all from another world, are you not?"

"Arcy has been pretty vicious lately. The rock rain is starting to disrupt the mournful souls and I fear the Sea of Souls will get brave and try to swallow the Purgatory." Narla commented, giving away that the Limbo was over them. "But enough with sad talk, you lot rest for a bit and recover from your wounds, then I'm sure Lisa will help you get back home." The Giratina said going back to her previous attitude. "Did you know that Legendary Pokémon like us are reborn?" She said to them as to try to start a bit of conversation to make them relax and recover, and it caught the attention of almost everyone. "Yes we do. As you can see with Ren here, we grow old, just slower than the rest but we do reach the point we die of age. This is like… my tenth life maybe?" She said. "However, we are truly reborn, unless we are guardians of a plane, like Lisa with space or me with this place, when we die we lose our memories and start a new life. But for that to happen we have to be in this world. Putting an example, and sorry Ren, if Dante is not taken back his essence would disperse and disappear. The world would have to create it again and give it to another Pokémon, thus making it become the new Suicune. Yes the world itself is alive, and uses its own aura to create the essence of us Legendary Pokémon. Yet it's a slow process and takes a lot of aura. Enough to make the world freeze completely but keep all of it alive, or half the planet would die for a few millions of years." She told them. There was more information that she shared with everyone, as at least the Kaiser sat up or laid down to rest from the affairs they had come out.

Team Star had stopped listening halfway through her rambling, able to imagine how the process of resurrection worked with legendaries. Once she was done they looked at Lisa, and once again, asked Lisa about going back home. The Palkia nodded at them, telling them she could send them back thanks to Kol, a friend that had kept the way they came open for them to be able to return. "Make sure you have all that's yours with you because it's a one way only trip." She finished. At least Narla's rambling had given them enough time to heal properly. They nodded and looked at Narla and Ren, thanking them for what they had done for them, and once more swore to end the nightmare once and for all.

After she got their answer, she concentrated and looked for the place, her pearls glowing as she teleported them one by one again as to avoid teleporting them to the exact same point. Narla said her goodbyes to everyone as they disappeared and Ren bowed politely like any elder would, and after them, Lisa did the same.

* * *

They appeared in the front yard of the household. All scattered but close enough to see each other. To see home again was a gift to the group that had been captive for what seemed like forever. They approached the house and Hadrim used his psychic to unlock and open the door, before he could call that they were home, Emily had dashed out of the door and tackled Dust to the floor while yelling his name loud and clear enough to call everyone's attention. The sound of a blind being rolled up made some look up and they saw Ichiro almost throwing himself off the window to see them, and that smile on him made some of them smile as well, Clara was had a harpoon on and a wooden spoon in one hand, the which was dripping with pastry dough. The moment she saw them she ran at Luca and hugged her tightly, the Lucario doing the same as she tried to comfort the crying human, who then, somehow, managed to gather all those that had been gone for so long and hugged them in one big group hug. Telling how glad she was that they were safe and had returned.

Zed rushed out and made his way to the group, crying tears of joy at the sight of everyone being ok and back to safety, especially after having heard in the news of the massive explosion that had wiped the mansion off the face of the earth, and all the lab and evidence of Team Arena's existence with it. Whilst these were the main headlines, other news such as the most recent flood in a far away island and the brave and selfless actions of a certain ship captain had been on the news for the past few hours. "Everyone's going crazy over the rescue mission, the lab, the legendary pokémon… and even Will showed up on TV and said he was worried sick about some friends!"

Everyone visibly tensed up and chuckled at the mention of the captain. "Yeah… someone will have to go tell him that we all got out alive… Seriously, that was a bumpy ride…" Serge said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Agreed… but I'm afraid the Kaisers will have to do that." Eric looked at the Zorua gravely. "We're going home." His words shocked the Zorua at first, but his eyes lit up at the prospect of finally heading back to their world. Everyone in the team had similar reactions, but they all shared a sentiment of sadness for the upcoming farewell.

"The house not gonna be the same without you lot." Hadrim said with a smile.

"By the way, Elly I have something for you." Luca suddenly said as she remembered and headed inside the house, while she was gone, Hadrim asked Jake to accompany him inside, and moments after they went in Lisa appeared there, in her human form since the last thing they needed was a massive Palkia sticking out like an orange in an apple bunch. The white dressed human waved at them all in silence. After a bit, Luca came out of the house with a small bag where she had a brand new set of knitting needles and a few yarns, and offered it to the sky blue eyed Eevee. "I got you this before we came back from our vacation." She said, holding the bag for her to pick it up. "You said you wanted to start knitting and I just couldn't help myself on wanting to have a little something." The Lucario explained with a warm smile.

Elly accepted the gift with a face of shock, grasping the bag with her psychic powers and pulling it close, unable to believe what she saw. She hadn't bought anything for her… so the only thing she could do was walk up to her and hug her leg. The weight of the reality before them came crashing down with that single gesture: they really were about to go back home after a whole year of absence...

"Oh dear." Luca let out, kneeling down to hug her back, even daring to pick her up for a moment.

Dark let out a sad chuckle, the Zoroark scratching the back of his neck under the mane. "It's been… quite a year, huh?" He let out, not really good with farewells. "Would've liked to have you around a bit more… maybe learn a bit more from a strict master?" He chuckled, looking at Eric, hoping he caught his drill. "Ah… I hate this kinda things!" He finished, sighing.

"I think we all do Dark… but it's something we all have to face and do, even if we don't want to." Eric said, smiling at the Zoroark.

"Yeah! And besides, you'll probably remember us for a long time, right?" He slapped the Zoroark's back in a sign of friendship and laughed. "Or maybe for a few months, I don't know."

"Well I think I'll remember you every time I pull out one of this." The Zoroark said, summoning a little aura sphere for a moment. "After all you taught me right." He chuckled, dismissing it. Eric also laughed as well, holding out a paw, which the Zoroark accepted with a smirk. However, before anyone could say anything more, Emily rose her voice.

"Wait… You are all talking like we're not going to come back at all." She said all of a sudden, sitting by Dust, who was also sitting on the ground, his face downcast and fixed on the floor. "Isn't there a way that we can come visit?" She seemed confused now, as if she as well had bought the cover they've been using this whole year.

"Dear. You come from another world, in another dimension. Once you go back home the rift that took you here will be closed and there won't be any way to come back here." Lisa explained, sounding apologetic but her explanation was a bit cold, and she got a few hard looks from the others.

"Em…" Dust called her and, with a knot in his throat, he couldn't talk, so he just hugged her tightly as his eyes swelled up with tears. She felt it and even started to cry, even if she started to ask why was he crying. The scene intensified a bit more the sadness of this moment.

Team Star looked at this scene, devastated… but Jake's keen intelligence and spot on memory came to the rescue as he stepped forward. "Now… if I may interrupt this heart wrenching moment… may I remind everyone that our original assignment was to take Emily back from her kidnapper's clutches… and back to a family that quite honestly lost sight of her and didn't report her disappearance for a whole two weeks." He pointed out the facts and reminded Elly of that excuse of a father, and everyone's eyes lit up.

"I think I know where you are going, Senasel." Lisa said. "But there are rules. And everyone, unless reasonably banished, must remain within their dimensions." She said.

There were some that almost barked a protest, but a voice beat them to it, a new voice that no one recognized. "You? Talking about keeping rules, Miss Lisa?" The voice asked and then chuckled as a silver furred being stepped out of the trees. "Sorry I couldn't help but be there listening in." The being said. "Name's Chrono. Avatar of Time part of Yorlin Kolmarth." He introduced.

"You know the rules, I can't let her stay even if I want to." Lisa said.

"I know. But I also know you've broken some sensible rules, the proof of one of them is right here in the form of a female Espeon and male Zoroark. I know, it's less sensible than interdimensional and you are allowed if they are willing to do the trip. But do I have to remind you that Time and Space mustn't get close, and so do their guardians? I remember a certain Palkia asking the others to look it over, so she could be with her beloved brother. In other words, Yours and Robert's relation is a sensible law breaking on its own, one we're proud that the two of you had kept without incidents." He finished, catching her on that and making her blush hard. "So then, rules are only worth looking over when it's personal love what you feel but you can break two lovers hearts that you are not related to?" He asked her, quite harshly. "As they say nowadays: I call bullshit."

Everyone was beyond confused at the Avatar's appearance, but he gave them the edge they needed, as Lisa couldn't fight back with that reasoning, and now the decision lay solely on Emily: whether she wanted to stay in that world with Dust, or go back to her world with her family.

"Fine. Little Eevee, you have to pick. Family or Love." She said. "THink about it, I have to prepare." the Legendary ended as the Avatar held a pocket watch, leaning on a tree, waiting in silence. Dust looked at Emily for a moment, he really hoped that she would stay with him but he'll understand if she would return home. After all, mother and father there's only one of each, and there would be more lovers in the future. ' _But what if they don't treat her right?_ ' The doubt crossed his mind and made it harder for him to say the words. "I'll... support you on whatever decision you make." He managed to say.

Emily looked at him and also looked around, looking at Elly and Lucy for advice. She didn't know what to do, She didn't want to leave Dust, but what about her parents? It was true they forgot about her very often, and even left her unwatched as if they didn't had her, but still she was torn on the inside. The others of the Kaiser didn't say anything, since they hadn't met her parents to begin with, and only Team Star could support Jake's statement.

After thinking a bit, she realized that while her parents forgot about her constantly, here Luca, Hadrim and Dust had paid her a lot of attention, she was never alone, and when Dust was busy she always had one of the others to talk with and to have company, or she could just play a bit with Ichiro and have fun with the human boy. Slowly her mind was made and she smiled and hugged Dust and kissed him, making him cry again, this time out of happiness.

"I'll stay with Dusty!" She declared, looking at Lisa, wagging her tail and smiling big. Dust couldn't hold himself and hugged her again, thanking her like a chant, as he hugged, kissed and licked her face, smiles spread around seeing this as well. Hadrim was still waiting for Jake at the household door and he was as well smiling at this turn of events.

Lisa nodded and smiled, and for once, the Avatar did the same, looking at this for a moment and then back to the pocket watch. "Then it's decided. I need to concentrate for a bit but I'll open you a portal as soon as I can. Just one more detail, I need an image of where you want to appear at the other side." She asked. Once she got a good image, the human Palkia concentrated, the pearls of her necklace starting to glow as she concentrated to locate the place.

"While she is on that why don't you say your farewells to Clara and Ichiro and get the rest of your things?" Hadrim said. "And Jake we'd like to give you something, if you could come with me so you can pick." The espeon said again to the Sneasel.

Lisa took various minutes to get ready, more than enough for Team Star to get ready to depart. Hadrim and Luca had gifted Jake with one of their books, the one he wanted most, but only one. Jake took up their offer, going as far as bowing and kissing their paws as he humbly chose "Don Quixote", a book that had mesmerized him ever since he had first read it. Eric and Elly took all the crystals and bags stored away in their room. Finally, once everything and everyone was ready, they all lined up in front of Lisa, with the Kaisers in front of them, standing together as a proud family.

Luca and Hadrim wished them good luck and a good life and that things went well as well. At the same time, Lisa finished with her preparations and claws appeared on her human hands. However, there was one more thing that took everyone by surprise.

"Nox!" Luna called the Houndour. Once he faced her she dashed at him and rammed into him with a tackle, somehow managing to get him on his back with her on top. "That one for being a perverted, hot headed stubborn!" She barked, panting a bit.

He yelped in pain as he was thrown onto his back, groaning and looking at her. "Oi! What the hell's wrong, you-"

However she silenced his words with a quick movement that left everyone wide eyed: the Vulpix locked her lips with his as she tried to do everything to keep him down in case he struggled. For a bit, she kissed him deeply, eyes closed. After what looked like extremely long minutes she broke it. "That one… For everything else." She said with a smile and got off of him and back with the Kaiser her tails giving a contempt wag to the side as she trotted back, feeling she had now properly said good bye to that bag of pride that had managed to soften her a bit.

He stayed there on his back for a bit, utterly flabbergasted and leaving everyone on the team, even Jake, speechless. "Ummm… can I stay too?" He sheepishly asked, before he was whisked away by Serge and given the noogie he deserved, earning himself a hearty laugh from everyone in the group. "Ouch ouch, okay okay I got it! Still… thanks to you as well Luna." He meant it, and she could tell.

Once they were all in line again, Lisa took a step forward and asked them one last time if they were ready. Eric took the word. "Yes, but… before we go, I just want to thank the Kaisers for… all they've done for us. We have had our moments, we may have not been as honest as we should've and we may have brought our problems here… but even then, they still accepted us in their home and kept us safe, and possibly close to their hearts. We will remember you all too, for being not only the greatest of hosts we could've asked for… but also unforgettable friends." He smiled as he said this last part.

Dust smirked a bit as he crossed his arms. "All that speech to say 'We will miss you?'" He asked, thought he was touched as well. "You sound like a politician, bro. Lighten up with your close ones."

"We will miss you all as well." Shade said to them, some of the Kaiser nodding to her words, others smiling and fewer giving them a thumbs up gesture.

"Can't help it… I do give some of the best speeches…"

"That he does… But still, I wish you all good luck in the future… specially to all the Eevees and Eeveelutions in the house!" Everyone looked at the giggling Elly, who dismissed their worries with a paw. "Relax relax… I'm just joking: good luck to everyone though, seriously."

"It has been an honour to live and fight with you. May glory shine ever so brightly in your path."

"It was super nice while it lasted… and thank you for the recipes Luca, I hope you all have a wonderful time!"

"Good luck! And one day, when I'm fast enough, I'll break the walls between our worlds and come visit you! How's that sound?!"

"The walls between worlds don't work like that, child… but you may still try." Lisa commented on Lucy's sentence with a chuckle. With that Serge picked up Eric, Elly and Zed, leaving Jake on the ground because of his own stubbornness, put on all their bags and crystals and other belongings, and turned to face Lisa. The Palkia nodded and closed her eyes, spreading her arms as a tear opened behind her, one that was very much like the one that had taken them home. They all looked at eachother and nodded, before walking off into the light. The last thing the Kaisers saw and heard from the group was a thumbs up from Eric, and a simultaneous "Thank you" from everyone… before the portal closed and separated their worlds once and for all.

* * *

They were gone. It would be a lie to say that the Kaiser won't miss them. They had lived a lot of things. Everyone remembered the snowball fight, going to the beach every now and then when Spring started to get very warm. The little prank wars that normally ended with two of them getting scolded. The time when their minds were swapped and that adventure to look for Kaylany. Their time at the hotel and the messes they'd gotten in there. They were all found memories, whether bad things happened or not. Looking back it might seem it was little what they had been together, but it sure didn't feel like that.

To top it all, The spark that had surged between Dust and Emily, who were broken when the parting moment arrived. Also the surprise Luna had given Nox before he was teleported away. Little moments that meant a lot for everyone, and Dark felt even more motivated to improve. If he wanted to help this world he had to grow stronger since it seemed like there was little way for him to turn back human.

Natalie and Radius had decided to go on a walk together, going to town to watch the book fair. The both of them had gotten even closer after all that has happened at the lab, and Radius was even more protective of Natalie, almost to the point of Dark, but the Jolteon never forgot about his sister or the rest of his family. Dust and Emily usually went out as well on dates since the Riolu wanted to show her the island. Hadrim and Luca were to their own things, mostly in the house. Sometimes they went out together for whatever reason they never said and no one ever asked. Luna spent most of her days with Ichiro as well as Shade. Dark on his side he got a new driving license in record time and finished his personal project.

Normality had come back to the house and to their lives. Even with the news regarding the event of Legendary Pokémon fight, and the discovery of the blown up lab under what was their battlefield. However, there were other news reports. They showed and talked about random things appearing out of nowhere in random locations. It was said that at first they thought it was an isolated event, but lately it had been happening more and more all around and had even caused some serious accidents, like a bus that crashed into a wall that appeared in the middle of the road with just a few survivors, or reports of People and Pokémon gone missing when those events happened. It was strange, and no one understood why these things were happening. The authorities blamed pretty powerful psychic influences, which immediately pointed at the Pokémon and since that moment the psychic types had been harassed by others, mostly by the indirect victims of these events.

" _How long are we going to let that happen?_ " Chrono asked in his mind as he was watching the news, the Avatar disguised, transformed into a white furred Arcanine having a pocket watch hanging from his neck.

" _This has gotten out of hand… But now with the rift… closed we can fix it._ " A pained response came from his space counterpart.

" _The wounds are bleeding. We must fix this immediately._ " With those words, the Arcanine started to walk somewhere.

At the same time, watching over a great group of Pokemorphs, Tide received the message. After getting them out of the arena they had found another group thanks to Grim, the human, Zax, had decided to stay with them and help them find a new home. aside from him and his Pokémon a lot more Pokémon had stayed with the previously humans, knowing the pain they too had gone through, for some it was hard to leave them without knowing if they'll be fine. After looking over everyone, Tide walked up to Zax.

"I must go for the time being. I trust you can handle this much alone for the time being?" He asked.

"We can manage. Did you have any place in mind to take them to?" The human asked.

"Keep heading west. You have to go to the westmost island of the archipelago. One that only water Pokémon reach since it was proclaimed a Pokémon only área. Humans are only allowed to visit and Pokeballs are forbidden. They'll be safe there and will be able to settle. We'll be back as soon as we can."

And after saying that, The Avatar had gone away flying, leaving behind a bewildered human that tried to think about what the creature meant with 'we'.

* * *

Team Star's house had been empty for the last year, and everything was the way it'd been when they had left on that fateful morning to find Emily. It had all been still and quiet… until a rift opened, and out of it Team Star walked out, one by one. Lucy was the first, followed by Nox, the duo being the most excited to return to their home, then Jake, who limped his way through the portal, and finally Serge who was carrying Zed, Elly and Eric on his back with relative ease. Once they were finally out of it, the portal shifted and closed, cutting off the only link to the world they'd been stuck in for the last year and their friends. As the dust settled and everything came to an end, most let out a sigh of relief, whilst chuckles spread through the group.

It quickly devolved into laughter and cheering as they celebrated they'd gotten back home, even Jake jumping up from the excitement, in spite of his wounds as they felt the tranquility of being back home, most likely calling their neighbours' attention. "Finally! I never thought I'd miss this small crappy home!"

"Crappy?! Dude, this place is the best, at least we've got our own room!"

"The kitchen… it's still where I left it! Oh god I'm gonna have to throw out all the food… it's probably gotten spoiled…"

"Screw that noise! Zed you and I are going to catch a long nap on the bed right now!"

Everyone was beyond excited, albeit Eric and Elly were having their celebration in a more calm and private manner, the two holding paws as they nuzzled together. After so long they were finally home… and they couldn't be happier about it. They shared a quick kiss and Eric turned to the Team. "Alright alright… listen up, let's rest for a few hours and gather our thoughts and energy, and after that we need to report in the guild… I think they'll be glad to see us alive and kicking."

"That… may be an understatement." Jake said, cutting off all their cheers and forcing everyone's attention to him. He was pointing at the entrance of their modest home, where they all saw hundreds of flowers and letters, some of them withered, some of them still fresh.

"Oh… crap… right we went MIA… People are gonna freak the fuck out when we show up in the guild." Serge's guess was pretty accurate, or at least that's what the rest of the team thought as well. Lucy sighed and walked over to the entrance with Jake, the two taking care to not trample all the beautiful flowers, scattering petals everywhere in the process as they failed, and the ice type opened the door, finding their spare set of keys next to the entrance.

As he opened the door an even bigger pile of flowers came down on Lucy, burying the Shinx underneath the colorful petals and sweetly scents, something which she enjoyed for just a few seconds before unburrowing her way out of the rainbow of plant gifts. "Don't tell me this is all from our fans… Alright, I'm gonna take a run through town, check on everything and go to the guild to tell everyone… you guys stay here."

"Wait, I'll tag along too, might as well go to the centre of town to check on everyone there too." Serge crouched down and let the three pokémon on his back down, then looked at Nox and motioned at the door. "C'mon Nox!"

"Awww what?! Why me?! I'm tired!"

"You've barely done anything! Come on, a jog will help you get into shape and catch up with Eric! Thought you told me you wanted to beat him in a spar?" This comment earned the Pidgeot a groan of annoyance as he left the house, followed by the Houndour and the Shinx. Elly couldn't help but smile as she saw how everything was finally going back to normal, and as they left Jake closed the door, opened the windows and lifted the blinds in order for the air to flow and blow away the foul smells and sat down with everyone else. The cushions were just the way they'd left them that morning… with the exception of a thin coat of dust, which covered anything and only brought dismay to Elly, knowing she'd have to clean it later.

They sat like that for a good three minutes before Eric spoke up. "Thank god we're back." That was the first thing they'd heard him say since they got there, and it cut through the air like butter, making everyone chuckle or laugh. "I mean… seriously, when they say that there's no other place like home they really do mean it! It feels like it's been way more than a year."

"Indeed… that perhaps could be explained because of how emotional this journey was… all in all, while not as epic and lengthy as our previous, it was quite an adventure…" Jake rubbed his chin as he said this, keeping his thoughts on everything they'd learned whilst there. Elly however, could read his mind without the need of her psychic powers.

"Don't go around upsetting the natural order of progression and science with whatever you learned over there Jake! Last thing we want is to have cars roaring through the streets." This comment earned her a groan of approval from everyone, followed by more laughter and some silence.

"Think they'll be fine?" Zed simply asked, though it was pretty obvious to whom he was referring.

"Yeah… I think so." Surprisingly, it was Eric who said this. "If you asked me that question a year ago, I'd probably tell you the opposite, but… They looked very determined when we left. That entire lab episode must've opened their eyes to the real threat that looms above them… and we did all we could, training them, scolding them, counselling…" He let out a sigh as he pictured the family. "They'll be fine, definitely. Just need to train a bit more." Everyone nodded as the said this, silently agreeing. "That being said, next time I see a god damn human will be too soon!" Once again, laughter echoed in the room.

"Agreed… I think I've had enough from humans for about a lifetime… sure, not all them were bad, but I can't wait until all of that is shelved away in the back of my head. And speaking of that… Do you guys smell something?" She asked, and everyone sniffed and agreed that something smelled foully… they all turned to face Eric, who was just sitting there with his gaze lost into infinity.

"I've been stuck in a laboratory and an arena for about a week and a half, give a goddamn break." His reasons were useless however, as Elly's wrath was unstoppable. Even if they'd just gotten back, she started screaming bloody murder and ordered the Riolu to go in the bathroom and wash up at least five times, six if he wanted to share the bed with him, all the while they all laughed and chuckled. The happiness they experienced from finally being back home was next to impossible to shake off.

While Eric took that much needed bath and finally relaxed, the trio that had left for Treasure Town came back… alongside virtually every single pokémon that had ties with Team Star or just knew them, which included every single guild member, most of the shop owners, the entire police department and dozens more… among the which were familiar faces like Milly, Mick and Ferrus. Never in their life could've Team Star imagined a warmer welcome as they shook paws, hugged and laughed alongside their crying friends, trying to calm them down. Once Eric came out of the bath the roars duplicated in intensity, and the entire motion was repeated, the fighting type shaking paws and receiving hugs from left to right.

However, who caught his attention was Ferrus, who was standing near the entrance with a proud smile on his face. He only read his lips, as the other pokémon's words were far too loud for him to hear. What he did interpret however, warmed his heart and make him realize just how much they'd been missed.

"Welcome home."

* * *

"...So, in the end, you failed." His contractor's voice could be heard above the many voices in that boiling cauldron of a tavern. Tensions were higher than ever before, with rumors of team Star's return after a long year disappearance, all sorts of low life criminals had gathered to plan out their strategies for the coming months. "Look at them… They just came back a few days back and the criminal world is in an uproar… you could've prevented this, had you succeeded in your mission."

"It is easier said than done… not even you could kill the Riolu while he was in a weakened state, and you had personal reasons to attack and destroy them. Yet you failed. Multiple times."

"You were put into a sorry state yourself too… and you only faced them once." The Pursuer hissed at the insult his contractor had spit in his direction, and the Haunter got up. "In all honesty… this was all a bad idea. We had a deal that you would kill Rish for me and put my mind at ease… alas you've failed and blown your cover." He looked at the cloaked one. "I should've known this would happen… I'll be the one to finish this then: I will discover the truth behind what happened fifteen years ago and take my revenge. Good luck in your own affairs. And if our paths cross again… That Riolu is **mine**." And with that he slammed a few poké on the counter and left the bar. The Pursuer saw him slowly walk away, sinking further and further into the darkness of the night, bathed in weak moonlight as he eventually became a tiny spot, and then disappeared.

It felt various emotions coursing through its body, though the most prominent one was anger, cursing Team Star over and over for having gotten in his way…It had felt the power that slumbered inside that Haunter, but alas he'd been unable to convince him to join their cause…. whilst it despaired and pondered what the next step was, another pokémon took the Haunter's place… physically and metaphorically speaking. A sudden rush of energy emanated from the Zoroark who had taken his contractor's seat, laid back and put his feet on the table, smiling. His bright red eyes locked with the Pursuer's, and he too felt that he'd lost a potential member… only to find a much better candidate.

"Before you ask… Yeah, I heard you and that ghost talking… I've been keeping an eye on you two for a while now…. You were saying some interesting stuff, what with: Team Uncario, Blake and the Dark Eons… and of course, killing and breaking Team Star apart." The Pursuer's eyes lit up, but the Zoroark stopped him before he spoke. "And before you ask… yes, I do have my motives and reasons for doing this. I always like family reunions… they're quite tender." He played with a poké on his claws, the coin flipping between his claws, staring into it, then grasped the coin and looked at the Pursuer, sliding the money over to him.

"So… do we have a deal?"

 **To be continued…**

 **I'll be at the rouuuundabout! Ha ha ha… Well, in all seriousness… This is it everyone, we have reached the final stop for this fic. Now, if I may please call your attention to this long and drawn out explanation of what's going to happen and some special thanks:**

 **Now, first of all, I'll take the word for Ray: His immediate plans involve translating the first chapters of his fic to English, after which everything will be available for English readers and there will be a far better continuity for his next part of the story.**

 **As for me, I will probably be taking a few weeks of rest from writing, mainly so I can get everything back in order and I can find and arrange the hundreds of notes I've made during these past two years for the next fic… But Team Star's adventures will continue in the next part of A Hero's Rebirth: "Web of Lies".**

 **And now with those out of the way, time for some special thanks:**

 **First of all, my great friend Ray, who co-worked on this and together we made this fic what it was. It was a great time bro.**

 **Also, whilst he might not have been with us for a long time, I'd also like to have a BIG SHOUT OUT to my super friend, WesternFail, who proofread the last few chapters of this fic and elevated them to that level of excellency that I had been striving for. Thanks a lot, and I hope you enjoyed the ride!**

 **And then a big thank you to every single reviewer and person who has affected this story in some way through their commentary or continued support:**

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 **And of course, to every reader that while the didn't follow or review, they followed the story and enjoyed it thoroughly. Thank you all for being wonderful readers, and we shall see you in our next adventures!**

 **Take care!**

 **Eric566 & Rayduran**


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